Behavioral neuroscientist Evan Balaban of McGill University, however, cautions that relying on twin studies as the sole evidence of links between genetics and behavior is a mistake. About two thirds of identical twins actually share the same bloodstream while fetuses, so greater similarities between twins could be attributable not only to sharing genes but “to sharing more similar levels of hormones and other compounds each fetus produces during development,” he explains. “So there is a pattern of similarity these researchers have documented that needs to be explained, but genetics is not the only explanation for it.”
This article was originally published with the title The Genetics of Politics.
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2 Comments
Add CommentThe data certainly support some degree of biological determination of voting behavior, but I disagree that the study "finds that biology strongly governs voter turnout". The percentage (be it 40, 60 or 72 percent) sounds high, but this is merely the percentage of differences between twins that is explained by biological factors. Twins grow up in very similar surroundings, so one would expect the socially determined differences between them to be much smaller than those between arbitrary individuals, and hence the biologically determined differences to be relatively more important. Whether "biology strongly governs voter turnout" should be judged by the percentage of differences between arbitrary individuals that is explained by biological factors -- this is of course harder to determine, but I would expect it to be far lower than the corresponding percentage for twins.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe data does support some degree of biological determination but i disagree to that the study finds that biology strongly governs voter turnout. The percentage as it is does sound high but as he said this is merely the percentage of differences between twins that is explained by biological factors. so one would have to expect the socially determined differences.
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