{"id":333,"date":"2010-10-30T17:43:00","date_gmt":"2010-10-30T17:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/2010\/10\/30\/left-wing-liberals-are-born-not-made\/"},"modified":"2010-10-30T17:43:00","modified_gmt":"2010-10-30T17:43:00","slug":"left-wing-liberals-are-born-not-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/2010\/10\/30\/left-wing-liberals-are-born-not-made\/","title":{"rendered":"Left wing liberals are born not made."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pinko Liberal gene discovered! I wonder if I have it? Ge <a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/health\/healthnews\/8093263\/Left-wing-liberals-are-born-not-bred.html\">here<\/a>. My suspicion is we are actually mutants. Thanks to John Rathbone and <span style=\"font-style:italic\">Telegraph<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style:italic\">Researchers have discovered that the &#8220;liberal gene&#8221; opens you up to new ideas and alternative lifestyles \u2013 and could influence your belief in left wing politics.<\/p>\n<p>The findings may mean that liberals are born not made \u2013 although it is exacerbated if you an individual is popular during his or her young formative years.<\/p>\n<p>The Liberal Gene is a &#8220;transmitter&#8221; in the brain called DRD4 which is connected to a chemical called dopamine, known as the reward currency of the brain.<\/p>\n<p>When those with the gene are socially outgoing they seek out and are &#8220;rewarded&#8221; by other people&#8217;s points of view, far more than they might be without the gene.<\/p>\n<p>This suggests they are more open minded and tend to form less conventional political viewpoints as adults \u2013 especially if they have a socially active adolescence, says the study.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"font-style:italic\"><br \/>The research by scientists from the University of California and Harvard looked at 2,000 Americans.<\/p>\n<p>It is published in the Journal of Politics.<\/p>\n<p>It found those with a strain of the DRD4 gene seek out &#8220;novelty&#8221; \u2013 such as people and lifestyles which are different to the ones they are used to.<\/p>\n<p>This leads them to have more liberal opinions, politically, it found.<\/p>\n<p>The person&#8217;s age, ethnicity, gender or culture appeared to make no difference \u2013 it was the gene which counts.<\/p>\n<p>DRD4 is controlled by dopamine which affects the way the brain deals with emotions, pleasure and pain and can therefore influence personality traits.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pinko Liberal gene discovered! I wonder if I have it? Ge here. My suspicion is we are actually mutants. Thanks to John Rathbone and Telegraph. Researchers have discovered that the &#8220;liberal gene&#8221; opens you up to new ideas and alternative lifestyles \u2013 and could influence your belief in left wing politics. The findings may mean [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/believingbullshit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}