The Biological Of Politics

Most people recognize that liberals and conservatives think differently. They have a significant disagreement over the size of the government and the social changes needed in America. Liberals promote a welfare state concept that will meet the needs of all disadvantaged groups. They also wish for rapid change in the American culture to eliminate inequality. Conservatives view big government as wasteful and inefficient, and they object to the goal of equality, which, to them, is unattainable.

Before 2000, the differences between these groups were less noticeable. The Federal government worked, and the parties reached compromise positions on legislation. After that date, tribalism in America began to accelerate, and ideologies began to dominate. Liberal attacks on conservative ideology led to tribalism. Conservatives do not like combat and prefer to live their lives in peace, but when threats from the left begin to impact their way of life, conservatives take action.

Why do these differences exist in the American people?

The cause of these differences is genetics, which builds behavioral differences between people. Around 60,000 years ago, when humans migrated out of Africa, they encountered unfamiliar climates featuring colder temperatures and unknown species of plants and animals. Food supply was uncertain, and starvation became a serious risk.

One way of adapting to that problem would be natural selection and gene modification, which was impractical because it took too long to modify the appropriate genes. A more practical option was to develop behavioral adaptations that introduce flexibility.

These changes were implemented in a few generations. Two opposing behaviors developed: one group seeking new experiences (a hunter trait) and another that would prefer the status quo (a manager trait). The hunters would be most helpful in a food-poor environment because they loved to hunt. The managers would be most helpful in a food-rich environment because they would better manage an existing food supply. These behaviors sit at the ends of the political behavior spectrum. Other more moderate behaviors sit between them.

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Behavioral adaptation operates in human communities to control the number of individuals with each trait. Evolutionary biologists call the control mechanism frequency-dependent selection, where the number of new offspring in each group depends on how many are already there.

The frequency of these survival behaviors was negatively frequency-dependent, meaning that if the number of hunters became too large relative to the number of managers, more managers would be born to balance the numbers. This frequency correction mechanism was necessary because too many of one type would harm the community as a whole. A group of hunters without managers would lack the skills to operate in food-rich environments. The same is true for groups with no hunters. Few of the managers would hunt.

Over the generations and the centuries since these traits first appeared, they became more sophisticated. The hunters became people who liked the new and the different. They also liked decision-making and solving problems that had multiple options. The managers remained focused on the status quo and made decisions at the gut level.

After the advent of human society and governments, managers took control. They were loyal, respected authority, and sought unification, which was key to operating authoritarian governments. The hunters had a subservient role because their skills did not have a place in those systems.

As the Enlightenment unfolded, the relationship between the hunters and managers changed forever. For the first time, people were given rights by their governments. A new theory of politics, called socialism, was introduced to govern based on group needs. The hunters fully embraced this new system and believed they could use it to achieve equality. At the same time, the managers embraced freedom as an ideal and individualism as a way of life.

The hunters were now called liberals because they desired change. The managers were now the conservatives because they protected the status quo and traditions. Politics in the West has become a tug-of-war between socialism and democracy/capitalism.

During the past couple of decades, psychologists have researched the political divide to try and understand it. Studies involving MRI use in relationship to politically oriented questioning have shown that the brains of liberals and conservatives are different. One study used MRI scans on the brains of 90 students, each of whom had previously indicated their political orientation on a five-point scale ranging from "very liberal" to "very conservative."

Students with more conservative political views tended to have larger amygdalae, those structures deep within the temporal lobes that primarily process emotions, motivations, anxiety, and fear. The researchers found clusters of gray matter significantly associated with conservativism in the left insula and the right entorhinal cortex. The insula is associated with perception, self-awareness, and cognitive functioning. The entorhinal cortex is vital for human memory, memory processing, and navigation. They found that conservatives were more sensitive to disgust, which is consistent with increased functionality of the insula.

Liberal students, on the other hand, tended to have larger volumes of grey matter in the anterior cingulate cortex, the structure of the brain associated with monitoring uncertainty and handling conflicting information. This finding suggests that individuals with this characteristic have a higher tolerance for uncertainty and conflicts and can accept change more quickly than conservatives.

Other studies have demonstrated that Conservatives and Liberals have different attitudes toward the status quo versus change and order versus chaos.

One study showed that political orientation not only predicted attitudes about the importance of tradition and hierarchy versus social change and equality but also predicted automatic associations to a considerable degree. Their study analyzed test subject preferences for values like tradition versus progress, conformity versus rebelliousness, order versus chaos, stability versus flexibility, and traditional values versus change.

The researchers demonstrated that most participants preferred order over chaos, but the strength of those preferences was higher among conservatives. Liberals preferred flexibility over stability and progress over tradition. A significant difference between liberals and conservatives was also apparent when resistance to change and acceptance of inequality were connected. Conservatives favored traditional values, while liberals favored change.

The picture that emerges from research shows the two groups to have the following characteristics:

Liberals – desire change, like complex decision-making, hate inequality, believe they don't have control of their lives, believe wholeheartedly in science, and maintain that "experts" are needed to manage the world.

Conservatives – dislike change, prefer the status quo, honor traditions, are cautious, desire freedom, respect individualism, see the normal human society as hierarchical, are loyal, and respect authority.

These differences loudly demonstrate that conservatives cannot become liberals and vice versa. There is a moral and political divide between the two groups that cannot be breached. America must move forward by consensus, so politicians must find common ground.

Today's political environment mimics the prehistoric age of mankind. Back then, too many hunters were dangerous. Likewise, too many managers were dangerous. Today, the problem is too much control by liberals/progressives. They control higher education, the media, and the federal bureaucracy. The imbalance in power leads to policies that only work for half of the American people. It is the historical role of the conservatives to protect traditions and keep a brake on the excesses of the liberals. That brake was strengthened with the election of Donald Trump last month.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author's own.