New Scientist of 2 Feb 2008 has an article titled "Are political leanings all in the genes?"

Here is a link but you'll need a subscription to read it.

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg19726411.800-are-political-leanings-all-in-the-genes.html

The short answer is this.

There is no one gene that controls the way you vote.

There is no "ALP gene."

BUT

There are multiple genes, ENSEMBLES of genes, that influence various character traits.

According to the article three character traits appear to be important in determining political leanings.

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS: Being organised, self-disciplined and responsible and likely to follow rules

OPENNESS: Being open to experiences, focusing on change as an opportunity rather than a problem and think of about the world as it might be.

EXTROVERSION: Being quick to self-disclose, tending to process information out loud and being fond of being seen to be busy.

All three traits are known to be highly heritable.

But, remember, these are NOT single gene affects. There is, for example, no single gene that makes you an extrovert. Rather there are multiple genes that collectively incline you towards extroversion.

In the US, people who score high on conscientiousness and low on openness and extroversion TEND to vote Republican (= Australian Liberal?)

People who score low on conscientiousness and high on extroversion and openness TEND to vote Democrat ( = ALP?)

I THINK this link to a graphic will work:

http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/archive/2641/26411801.jpg

Remember that these are tendencies. There are many extroverts who vote Republican and many conscientious people who vote Democrat.

So next time you encounter someone who does not agree with your politics don’t get angry. Perhaps the poor fellow was born that way.

And remember:

The world is under no obligation to conform to your desires.

The world is what the world is.

Dear Steven,

There's a website that may be of interest:

http://www.brainconnection.com/content/207_1

It mentions Howard Gardner's book, "Changing Minds" (2004) which explores what cognitive scientists have learned about how we change our own and other people's minds.

I quote: "Gardner persuasively argues that an important mind change is rarely a sudden phenomenon, but rather typically occurs over time as we weigh the relative significance of seven central cognitive properties that gradually lead us to (or away from) a mind change..."

Great link Foxy, thanks.

I've book marked the site.

When I first came here 11 years ago I struggled to understand the differences between the ALP and the Coalition.

The atmospherics were a bit different but, on substantive issues, their policies seemed to be identical. Clones of each other in fact.

Sometimes even the terminology is the same. In 1996 the newspapers were full of the "Howard razor gang." Now it's the "Rudd razor gang."

Then, a few years ago I stumbled on an online betting site called betfair.com. This allows you to place bets on sports and politics.

Interestingly "politics" was classified under "sports" on betfair's main menu.

And THEN the penny dropped!

In Australia politics is simply another one of the team sports Aussies get so passionate about. You "barrack" for the ALP the same way you might barrack for Essendon.

If you're a Greenie you probably barrack for Melbourne because you're devoted to lost causes

Dear Steven,

There is a lust for life in much of what Australians do.

It's as Australian as a Chiko roll and as familiar as a kookaburra's raucous laugh. And it's theirs to use any way they damn well please.
Be it barracking for their political party or their football team.

I would like to discuss a little bit further - the topic of your thread - whether we're the products of heredity or of learning or rather of a complex interaction between the two.

We can readily see that this is the case with some of our physical features. Height and weight are partly determined by heredity. But people born with genes for tallness or fatness may not actually become tall or fat.

If they're underfed, they will be shorter and thinner than they might otherwise have been. The same appears to be true of many aspects of
personality.

Scientists have not found any specific genes that can be shown to influence personality, but many suspect that some traits, such as intelligence, shyness, and artistic abilities, are partly influenced by hereditary factors.

However, people learn to develop and satisfy their potentials in a social setting, and it's primarily their social experience that will determine whether they realize or fall short of these potentials.

A placid baby, if systematically ill-treated, can become a psychologically disturbed adult; a person born with a capacity for high intelligence, if raised in a stultifying environment, can grow up to be a dullard.

As you pointed out - our genes may set the broad outlines and limits of our potential, but how or whether we use that potential depends on the environment in which we live.

I guess though there are exceptions even to this line of thought.
For example - the case of identical twins - who although were reared
apart in totally different environments - yet still shared similarities in their personalities.

Interesting ...

stevenlmeyer,

Shush, don’t tell anybody but I will admit to entering this thread more times than any other I can recall.


I cant help it I keep coming in here to take a look.

Your new topic brought the house down up here.

We are waiting for response from a certain poster- Hilarious.

I know I am be naughty but couldn’t resist.

Very interesting thought which I have pondered more than a few times myself.

Perhaps if we behave you will allow us to join your thread later.

Mean while we wait in anticipation:)

Pastor Jack Burrell speaks in his much travelled around the christian churches book "What will become of Australia" 1975 about a time when theres an invader in the land.
The invader in the top half of the nation and a communist style government in the lower half.
I think any gene likely to be in Labor will be a communist gene right to the end.
It sleeps at the moment but later it will awake and do much damage. When the dye is in the cloth it generally stays there.

An ALP gene? - Rubbish

I used to live in North Eastern Victoria - where Eric Butler's League of Rights had disseminated convincing evidence (it was even in books in the Shepparton Library) that Fluoridation of water is the cause of people voting ALP.

They had maps of electorates showing this.
Genetics? - Tosh - it's fluoride wot does it

An ALP gene? - rubbish!

I used to live in North Eastern Victoria, where Eric Butler's League of Rights had disseminated convincing evidence (even books in the Shepparton Library) that Fluoridation of water is the cause of people voting ALP.

They had convincing maps showing the correlation between fluoridation and votes for ALP.

Genetics? - Tosh!
It's fluoride wot does it.

Gibo that is tripe! I am from the ALP and Communism is my enemy.
While you have every right to be a Christian, and no more of that boring lie that atheists hate God please you views keep more out of church than in it.
In fact I truly think, sorry BOAZ DAVID, we can fine the birth of much of todays problems in religions all of them.
How many truly care what some preacher said in 1975?
Let me tell you what the loony head of the church of England said this year.
That sharia law may be good for England.
In all my time in this forum I have had few cross words with believers, but your comments are often insulting to those[ the majority] who do not share them and never will.

Just a point of interest on that last comment.Professor Robert Morey has done many years of research and he mentions UK especially.
This book BTW was writeen almost twenty years ago and our Australian Government when Philip Ruduck was there did not know UK had changed its laws in Parliment. Robert Morey said all those years ago and I shall copy part-
In England the situation is amazing. There arenow more Arab muslims in England than there are Methodgelical Christians. Funded by the vast recources of Arab oil money some Muslims claim that England will be the first Muslim European country.
The legal situation reached the point where the English Parliment has been forced to rule that Muslims do not have to follow English Common Law when it comes to such things as divorce, they say the can follow Islamic Law instead.

Hi Belly.
If you understood the evil spirit realm, all of its powers and how they manipulate people, you would know that communism, and communism in Labor, is certainly not dead. Its just snoozing awhile. Off in a back room, underground, planning. The same spirit powers that got it going are alive today. Im not with the church of England either or its leadership. Rome will soon own most of them through ONE WORLD CHURCH.
I stand with a noble Australian artist by the name of Pro Hart, a born-again christian who liked to expose conspiracies a bit, who said some years ago "communism's not dead! Its still there!".
Its not dead as long as satan is alive and roaming the earth looking for victims.
Half of Labor has danced with it.
How did the present China thing get going?
The old communists in Labor visited her and said come... take-over. Thats why we're in relations with China today.
The old commies got us there...with a murderous government.

Of course there's no ALP gene - we lefties are products of the "evil spirit realm".

"satan is alive and roaming the earth"

True. I saw him the other day, but I thought he was Elvis.

I Gibo need to ask, is there a gene that forces some to be such Christians?
To be the first to throw stones?
To refuse to see we of the left the whole left not just the ALP are humans too?
That we are Doctors toilet cleaners bus drivers and bank managers?
Gibo attention , some of us are ministers of religion.
Now no easy task my friend but I an evil non believer think most Christians ,most who follow any God , do so with good intent.
I have the view your type do more harm than good.
Now in those days friend when I though your God was the answer, thank my brain for setting me back on reality's main road!
I saw Christians not want street people to go into the church and saw them hold a child's hand for 3 days and pray God would mend it before they took him to hospital.
From within my lifetime party the ALP let me tell you true communists are so few they would not get numbers over 2% in total.
And would be no more a threat than fundamental Christianity.

Just wanted to speak about Labor and communism as I understood it all Belly.
I dont know of one of them thats a committed born again christian.
So if they dont serve Jesus Christ they will serve anything even the old red thing many of them used to serve.
Thats true about the spirit powers.
They dont die in old age as men die.
They keep pushing what they established with the old commie revolution so many decades ago. Communism quielty lives on, waiting for another day.
Those spirit powers got the hari krishnas out of orange and into suits in the western world, yet it was the same old lie as it ever was.
You ought to get connected back with Jesus...it will all become clearer then.
Dont dwell on the churches as many do, but look to a personal relationship between you and Him. Confess the sin, ask Him in and wear the grin.

Gibo I should be in a rage, in truth I have no respect for your thoughts at all.
In truth it wastes my time talking to you, do you understand I can debate with Boaz David all day.
And in relation to his zeal as a Christian have understanding and respect for him.
Your post is uninformed, do you wish to claim Rudd is not a Christian?
Your super spiritual brand of Christianity is a threat to those who believe in your God.
You will find this hurtful but it is true, in my opinion your brand of Christianity is as evil as the worst from any religion.
I would give my life to fight communism, extremism in any form , but talking to you is not Worth the effort.

Dear Gibo,

You should take people on a one-to-one basis. Don't do what Boazy does - tainting everyone with the 'same filthy brush' as Vanilla said in one of her posts to Boazy.

Many people who belonged to the communist party did so in order to survive - not because they believed in the ideology. It was the only way they could keep their jobs, educate their children and so on. Many practiced their religion in the privacy of their homes. With the fall of communism in europe -
people once again began flocking back to their churches.

Religion has returned to those countries in a big way.