{"id":43317,"date":"2021-08-01T06:35:05","date_gmt":"2021-08-01T10:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=43317"},"modified":"2021-08-02T06:35:25","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T10:35:25","slug":"ideological-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ideological-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Ideological Development: Are Political Views Innate?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How are political views formed? Do we learn them? Or are we born with them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In The Righteous Mind<\/a><\/em>, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt discusses how we can have more constructive conversations with people who have different political leanings than our own. Interestingly, he believes that political ideology is at least partially innate, not just learned. He offers three keys to understanding ideological development, which can help bridge the divide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more to learn about ideological development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Rapid Ideological Polarization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

People\u2019s groupish<\/a> behavior, along with their commitment to their moral matrices, can lead them into a blind defense of an ideology or a political party. But, we can make better arguments and have more productive conversations with one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s significant evidence that we are understanding each other worse than ever. America is experiencing rapid ideological polarization, with the gap widening between political opinions on the left and the right. <\/strong>There\u2019s been a decline in the number of people who self-identify as centrist and a corresponding rise in those who identify as liberal and conservative. So, how can we learn to talk to one another better?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

> A Note on Political Diversity: <\/strong>This article focuses on the liberal to conservative scale and the psychology of \u201cliberals\u201d and \u201cconservatives.\u201d Many people in the U.S. don\u2019t characterize themselves as a member of either major party and don\u2019t reduce ideology to one dimension. Most people, though, are able to place themselves on the liberal to conservative axis, even if they don\u2019t identify as a Republican or a Democrat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 3 Keys to Understanding Ideological Development<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Before we can understand how liberals and conservatives can talk to one another more productively, we need to explore how liberals and conservatives develop their ideology (or their understanding of how we should order society).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How ideological development works might surprise many of us. Political scientists thought for a long time that it was mostly your upbringing<\/a> that determined your political ideology. But twins brought up in two different households are more likely to develop a similar ideology than unrelated siblings brought up in the same household. So, political ideology is at least partially innate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are three big steps in understanding ideological development:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Genes create brain chemistry: <\/strong>Scientists have found that liberals and conservatives have some different genes in their brains: These are mostly related to neurotransmitters that monitor and determine our response to fear<\/a> or threat. Conservatives respond more strongly to threats of danger than liberals, whereas liberals are more interested in new experiences or novelty. This is one way that we move from genes to politics: Genes develop brains that respond differently to sensors in the world. In turn, these genes help to determine politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Different traits move children in different directions: <\/strong>Personality formation and ideological development are based on innate and learned traits. We\u2019ll discuss two here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n