Although it may seem as though heated political dissent is just a product of our changing times, the result of being bombarded with news updates everywhere we turn, from our cable news stations and iPads, to our phones and email alerts, there’s hardly anything new under the sun. Shouting down political opponents has probably been with us, in some shape or form, since the earliest days of Homo sapiens.
Dr. Satoshi Kanazawa proposed a “savanna-IQ interaction hypothesis” in his provocatively titled paper, “Why Liberals and Atheists Are More Intelligent.” Essentially, Kanazawa argues that our prehistoric ancestors developed two significantly different cognitive perspectives in response to the world around them. Early humans needed a few highly intelligent, risk-taking individuals who were able to find novel ways to survive, and they also needed a number of less adventurous sorts who contributed to the cohesion of the tribe or clan to ensure the survival of future generations.
He’s not the only one to trace politics back to the Stone Age. Dr. Michael Bang Petersen, an evolutionary psychologist, has suggested that the problem of wealth distribution — a constant source of contention between liberals and conservatives — has likely been with humans since hominids first roamed the African savannah, where they lived constantly under the fear of attacks from predators, with whom they also competed for food. Because no individual could survive alone, everyone benefited in the long run. Maintaining a system that ensured individuals were rewarded for exemplary behavior, while all members of the group received basic necessities, would be the most ideal system for community living.
Given these differences, you may be wondering how much impact you had in choosing your own political orientation. Did personal experience etch these differences into our brains — why we feel so strongly about Obamacare or the NSA — or are people just born with these tendencies? And why are one country’s economic and social policies so different from another’s? Research into the science behind our political views is still in the beginning stages, but there may be a genetic basis for the differences.
In a study titled “A Genome-Wide Analysis of Liberal and Conservative Political Attitudes,” a group of researchers collected DNA from 13,000 respondents who were asked to complete surveys regarding their political attitudes. The researchers concluded that there are significant linkage peaks between the answers and the respondents’ DNA, suggesting that there might be a possible genetic basis for one’s political worldview.
So, if political dissent is built into the human experience, then how do we get along with Republicans or Democrats? It may be as simple as moderating our own views and appreciating what is useful in opposing points of view. In fact, one study found that moderate “centrists” were typically more intelligent than “radicals” on either side of the political spectrum.
Dr. Susan Heitler, a psychologist and relationship expert writing for Psychology Today, suggests the following to avoid letting political differences undermine relationships: “Keep your ears open so that you can listen for what makes sense in what others say. Treat what others say respectfully, listening in the best possible light to their differing perspective.” It has been said that we learn everything we need to know in kindergarten, so there you go. Bashing others over the head with our opinions will probably do little good anyway, so we might as well be nice, and occasionally agree to disagree.
This article was first published in Brain World Magazine’s print edition.
