Yeah, that is it, although the quiz was catchier :P

I thought this was interesting. Neural imaging suggests political orientation is genetic, sometimes unconscious, and testable: http://phys.org/news/2014-10-l...t-dead-giveaway.html

I'm a little confused by the article.

It stats this:



and this:



But then the actual descriptions of the test don't seem to indicate that specifically, but rather:



Which doesn't seem to indicate what I would have thought they were implying with the other quotes.  I'll have to see if I can find some more information on the exact study and the findings.  It does go contrary to what my initial thoughts on political leanings would be (that political leanings are almost all a function of nurture, and not nature), but then it seems like they are basically saying that political leanings themselves are not genetic, but rather there are other underlying brain structures that influence  political leanings, that are.

Not sure.  I need to find out more!  Thanks for posting it.

I've seen similar articles, including ones that show conservatives tend to be less educated and less intelligent than liberals.  Personally, I'm skeptical of those studies, as they seem to be rather biased on the face of it.

Heritable doesn't necessarily mean genetic.  Obviously a larger majority of people in a <insert political view here> house/environment are likely to end up <insert political view here> themselves.

Like Religion is heritable, like Language is heritable; not through genetics but through culture.  You develop your social habits from your society for the most part.

In reply to Sciencemile (msg # 539):

That's been the assumption for most folks for a long time, I think.  But more and more research seems to be showing that there is a genetic component to certain parts of things like this.  Like most things, there is both a nature and a nurture component.

In case anyone wants to read the actual article.

I hope I'm not coming off too angry about the subject in the associated thread.  I feel very passionately about this subject. Then again, I feel my history here has been me getting heated over one subject or another so maybe I'm hotheaded.

 If there is any language I have used towards you which you feel offended by let me know and I'll apologize for it.

Thanks for this.  After reading through some of it there are some intriguing points, but this one jumped out at me.



So, in other words, they don't really have enough information to say whether it's nature or nuture that is the driving force behind this (or both!), but just that there's some funky stuff happening in the brain that can be used to reasonable predict political leanings.

There are 2 other studies in the footnotes that discuss genetics and political leaning.  Does anyone know how I can find out if they are available for reading?

3. Fowler, J.H., Baker, L.A., and Dawes, C.T. (2008). Genetic variation in
political participation. Am. Polit. Sci. Rev. 102, 233–248.

4. Alford, J.R., Funk, C.L., and Hibbing, J.R. (2005). Are political orienta-
tions genetically transmitted? Am. Polit. Sci. Rev. 99, 153–167.

I looked for these at work, but as expected, we don't subscribe to American Political Science Review. Here are the links to the publicly available abstracts:

http://journals.cambridge.org/...Id=S0003055408080209

http://journals.cambridge.org/...Id=S0003055405051579

If you're really interested in an academic journal article, the authors will almost always be happy to send you a pdf of it if you send them an polite email.  Can take a bit of interweb hunting to find them, but most will be at a university with a staff directory, so often isn't too hard.

Phew, that was close.  My apologies Cain, I accidentally clicked "edit" instead of "quote" on your last post.

Luckily I was able to recover the original post.  At least, I hope everything's there.

Seriously sorry.

Looks fine to me!  No worries.  ;)

This will set me off on the right track, thanks!

Any thoughts on what topic to use for "scientific prayer experiments"? Amazon is recommending me a new book on the topic, which makes me want to vent my spleen on the un-scientific nature of the argument.

Do you mean what books?  I have heard 'How God changes your brain' has reviewed well, but the title is offputting for me and I have not read it.

How "God" Works, by Marshall Brain. Reviews make it sound like a book-length refutation of God based on the results of prayer experiments.

I'll take a look at it next time I'm at the bookstore (to judge its tone and logical style), but I'm unlikely to pay hardcover prices for it.

Hmm, yeah looks like a library snag.

Recently I was directed toward an anti-Mormon video by YouTube (recommended). I viewed it and made some comments about the inaccuracies of the production (I felt no need to comment on the accuracies, but it wasn't entirely wrong). This began a rather long and irritating back-and-forth between myself and another user who eventually declared victory despite my prior post simply stating that it was clear we weren't going to agree and that we should just shake hands and part ways.

I am very thankful to belong to a community like this where, even if I disagree with the conclusions, I feel that my opinion is respected and that the people I talk to have some reasoning behind their discourse that I can also respect.

Was it animated?

Sophistry is very annoying, I have to agree; when people are having a discussion with you, and you realize they are playing some metagame, it can be a very frustrating revelation.

It was not animated. Some sort of evangelical "tv" show (in the style of). The production value was alright. Shame about the lack of research.

I hear that. I've been pretty quiet as of late, but it's mostly been because of my RL work load. Still, every now and again I see something and think 'I need to post this!'

(And then forget :P)

Wow, it's interesting to look back and see I have been a member (and then GM) of this forum for almost 11 years now.  Time flies...

Some non-surprising, but nonetheless interesting, numbers from Pew Research came out today.  Check it out!

http://www.pewforum.org/2015/0...religious-landscape/

Yup. My dad forwarded that. I think don't think he's too happy about it.

Still, frankly, I think a little religious diversity is good to shake things up. For faith to be real, you need to have the option to not have faith, and if one religion is the real or the best way to be in a relationship with God, then clearly having a knowledge of more of them means more people are more likely to find that best way.