Genes may influence one's political orientation

London, February 7 : A professor of Political Science at Rice University says that genes are critical to a person's political orientation.

Professor John Alford says that his team analysed data from political opinions of more than 12,000 twins in the US and Australia.

The analysis showed that identical twins were more likely to agree on political issues than were fraternal twins, he says.

The researcher says that four-fifths of identical twins were found to have the same opinion on the issue of property taxes, while only two-thirds of fraternal twins agreed.

"What we found was that it probably is going to take more than a persuasive television ad to change someone's mind on a certain political position or attitude," New Scientist magazine quoted Alford as saying.

"Individual genes for behaviours do not exist and no one denies that humans have the capacity to act against genetic predispositions. But predictably dissimilar correlations of social and political attitudes among people with greater and lesser shared genotypes suggest that behaviours are often shaped by forces of which the person themselves are not consciously aware," he added.

Professor Alford also stressed the need for studying and teaching genetics along with social-environmental influences.

"It has been proven that genetics plays a role in a myriad of different human interaction and makeup. Why should we exclude political beliefs and attitudes?" said Alford.

ANI