Voting like your Dad

In the 1970s and 80s I would occasionally canvass for Plaid Cymru in the south Wales Labour heartlands. It was a hard slog and canvassers would often be greeted with the refrains Labour I was born, Labour I was bread and Labour I'll be carried out the door or My grandfather always voted Labour, my father always voted Labour so I'll always vote Labour. Such attitudes use to cause me great annoyance, but it appears that I was wrong to be annoyed. Apparently as much as 30% of our political opinions are genetically inherited, or so it is claimed in an interesting programme that was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 yesterday called Personality Politics

Timandra Harkness investigates how our political views are linked to the way our brains function. The psychology of ideology is now an active topic of research, not least amongst neuroscientists. Recent brain-scan studies have linked political attitudes to different brain structures and patterns of mental activity. Discovering the cutting edge brain research into how we make such choices, Timandra explores what its implications could be for the conduct of political debate and campaigning, how to influence people, the psychology of decision-making, and understanding ourselves.

Apart from looking at how our brains are wired to such concepts of left and right wing, Liberal and Conservative attitudes etc it also has an interesting discussion about the psychology of the Scottish Independence referendum

A fascinating programme well worth listening to by those who are interested in politics, psychology or both, which will be broadcast again on Mon 26 May 2014 at 21:00 and will be available on the iPlayer for the next week or so.