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Gordon Brown (Department of Psychology)

Parasites, Politics, and Social Groups: Possible Environmental Origins of Ideology

Gordon D. A. Brown, Lukasz Walasek and Corey L. Fincher

What causes individual differences in political preferences? Here we examine possible environmental determinants of political orientation, and test the prediction that high levels of parasitic infection within a region will be associated with more conservative ideology. We find strong correlations between US state-level ideology and state-level parasite stress for measures of political ideology taken in the 1960s and 1970s, consistent with the hypothesis that high levels of parasite stress lead to attitudes that are less open and exploratory, more in-group focused and system-justifying, less accepting of social norms violations and less trusting of out-group members. The parasite stress/ideology association survives the introduction of various controls but is weaker in more recent decades. It is suggested that many aspects of conservative attitudes and cognition may be understood as rational responses to environmental factors, and that the behavioural immune system may underpin individual differences in ideology.

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