This and the previous blog are notes from the Coursera: ’Genes and the Human Condition’, University of Maryland, lectures on “My Genes Made Me Do It”. What follows is from lecture 3.

“Psychologists don't really do consensus, but in the case of personality traits, it's hard to avoid: Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism (OCEAN for short) that constitute the sum of human personality. Each of us has our own unique coordinates depending on precisely where we fall along each of these five dimensions. Where we fall in each dimension is about 50% genetic and 50% environmental. So what do you think is the major environmental influence on personality? If you said parents then you would be wrong. Some major studies suggested that parents make only a few percent of differences in personalities and behaviors.  And the effects of family largely disappear as people get older. Criminal parents are most likely to produce criminal children. Yes, but not if they adopt the children. Likewise the children of divorced parents are more likely to get divorced. Yes, but only if they are biological children. So basically, these studies suggest that parents are overrated as shapers of values. Sandra Scarr suggests that people pick the environment to suit their characters.

You adopt the mannerisms of your peers. In the western world, at least, peers may be a lot more important than parenting. There are evolutionary reasons for this. Your peers will be your lovers, your allies, your rivals. In the long run, they're the ones who matter most. They matter more than your parents.”

It is interesting to compare Hillary Clinton’s politically slanted book: “It Takes a Village” with that of  Senator Rick Santorum’s conservative: “It Takes a Family”. Both books ignore the ability of children to make their own choices.

In a new field of study called genopolitics, it has become accepted that your political views may have a genetic component. Neuroscientists have shown that liberals and conservatives have different patterns of brain activity. In particular, there are differences in their amygdala, the part of the brain that makes emotional responses. Research has shown that people’s whose basic emotional responses to threats are more pronounced, develop ring wing opinions. Twin studies suggest that opinions on a long list of issues from religion, to gay marriage, to party affiliations have a substantial genetic component.

In the upcoming American presidential elections, it will be interesting to see how the idea that genes will influence the political outcome plays out.

Below is a mashup of the Coursera lecture: