Could political outlook be genetically influenced?

[John Dibble]

Genetically influenced? Most likely yes. Genetically predetermined? Absolutely not.

In psychology there is always the debate of nature vs. nurture. Few legitimate psychologists today would believe that our biology or our upbringing completely controls our behaviors. In some instances certain behaviors lean towards one or the other, but overall I'd suppose it's about fifty fifty.

[John Dibble]

Only way anyone would want to choose to be a Libertarian is if they were born that way

You have no proof of that! On the other hand, we KNOW it's true about being Canadian.

But don't worry, I don't hold it against Gabu.

[John Dibble]

In psychology there is always the debate of nature vs. nurture. Few legitimate psychologists today would believe that our biology or our upbringing completely controls our behaviors. In some instances certain behaviors lean towards one or the other, but overall I'd suppose it's about fifty fifty.

In my psychology class, I learned it's about 70-30 genetic based-environmental, with much of the environmental influence coming from our peers and almost zilch from our parents (minus, of course, the fact that they decide where we live, which affects what peers we are involved with ).

Don't know where the 70-30 figure came from - I think I've heard that for certain traits (Type A personality IIRC) but not an overall estimate. Also, I haven't heard anything about almost zilch coming from parents. That might have just been your professors beliefs. The classes I took just said that opinions vary on the subject among academics.