The Voting Gene

[Mr Skeptic]

According to ScienceDaily, Political Participation Is Partially Rooted In Genetic Inheritance. It seems that about 53% of the variation in voter turnout is due to genetics. Two genes in particular seem to account for 10% of the variation.

 

The same genes apply to various social and political behaviors, including going to church. I take this to mean that churchgoers are more likely to vote (this is mentioned in the journal), biasing the results in their favor (interesting side effect).

 

Let me pre-emptively add that you are not controlled by your genes, they just influence your behavior. In this case, many of the genes are linked to fear, trust, and social interaction, indirectly affecting voting.

[ecoli]

interesting, but not altogether surprising. Social cooperation is a very strong phenotype that would have been selected for in our early evolutionary history. Even "non-voters" exhibit significant degrees of social cooperation, esp. when they're being coerced or responding to dangerous situations.

[DJBruce]

Although genetics does have a role in the decisions we make I believe that our political solcialaztion has much more to due with a person voting or not.