Genes link to social attitudes: ‘Attitudes to ethical issues such as abortion and the death

penalty are partly determined by genes, researchers claimed

yesterday.

It used to be thought that such attitudes were wholly learned

from parents, friends, teachers and cultural environment. But the

new study by Canadian scientists surveyed 336 pairs of adult

twins and found a genetic influence in 26 of 30 subjects

investigated.

Genes appeared to be most influential in views on abortion,

voluntary euthanasia, the death penalty and organised religion,

racial discrimination, immigration and “getting on well” with

others.’ The study used the tried-and-true method of comparing correlations between identical and fraternal twins. Since presumably all twins reared together share environmental influences, the closer concordance between identical twins is considered attributable to their identical genes. The Guardian UK