Post by aroloff on May 3, 2016 5:27:52 GMT
So “Political Orientations Are Correlated with Brain Structure in Young Adults” seems to be the most interesting article this week because it seemingly flies in the face of lots of established knowledge and ideas about how political beliefs are formed (broadly known as socialization). Of course, this is basically a recasting of the “nature vs nurture” debate, albeit in slightly less authoritative words.
It seems to me like it would be difficult to ultimately establish either a (somewhat) definitive biological/genetic basis for political beliefs or a (somewhat) definitive sociological basis, because politics is such an abstract concept; how can one truly say what traits are associated with conservatism (they say perhaps fear and disgust) versus those associated with liberalism (they say tolerance of uncertainty), and furthermore, how can one establish where these ideas spring forth from? If there is a genetic/biological basis (which, it must be said, the article doesn't explicitly posit, though I would say there is an implication that there is a biological predisposition to certain ideologies), how can we say that this is the one true source of political orientations? Consider a couple with a child: say that the father is liberal, and has a biological/genetic predisposition for such ideologies, and that the mother is conservative, and has a biological/genetic predisposition for the same; perhaps the child grows up to be conservative. How can one establish that the child inherited the mother's predisposition, versus simply adopting conservative beliefs through traditional means of political socialization, that is to say from school, home, the media, etc.? In effect, how can we determine whether 1) there actually is any real correlation or causality between brain structure and political orientations, and if so 2) whether this link is a result of a predisposition from birth (i.e. someone is born with more gray matter in the amygdala/anterior cingulate cortex) and thus political orientations, whether they are relatively concrete or fluid, are a result of such structures; or if brain structures change over time to accommodate political beliefs?
It seems to me like it would be difficult to ultimately establish either a (somewhat) definitive biological/genetic basis for political beliefs or a (somewhat) definitive sociological basis, because politics is such an abstract concept; how can one truly say what traits are associated with conservatism (they say perhaps fear and disgust) versus those associated with liberalism (they say tolerance of uncertainty), and furthermore, how can one establish where these ideas spring forth from? If there is a genetic/biological basis (which, it must be said, the article doesn't explicitly posit, though I would say there is an implication that there is a biological predisposition to certain ideologies), how can we say that this is the one true source of political orientations? Consider a couple with a child: say that the father is liberal, and has a biological/genetic predisposition for such ideologies, and that the mother is conservative, and has a biological/genetic predisposition for the same; perhaps the child grows up to be conservative. How can one establish that the child inherited the mother's predisposition, versus simply adopting conservative beliefs through traditional means of political socialization, that is to say from school, home, the media, etc.? In effect, how can we determine whether 1) there actually is any real correlation or causality between brain structure and political orientations, and if so 2) whether this link is a result of a predisposition from birth (i.e. someone is born with more gray matter in the amygdala/anterior cingulate cortex) and thus political orientations, whether they are relatively concrete or fluid, are a result of such structures; or if brain structures change over time to accommodate political beliefs?
