Essentializing Politics: If Perceptions of Politics Become Genetically Essentialized, What Will Be the Consequences?

Abstract

Research investigating the genetic roots of political orientation has proliferated in the past decade. Such genetic accounts resonate with the human tendency to essentialize variation in psychology and behavior—to attribute variation to differences in an invisible, underlying, fixed essence. Invoking genetic essentialist biases leads people to consider traits to be relatively immutable and to consider social groups to be homogenous and discrete. These biases have real-world implications for out-group perceptions, stereotyping, and ascriptions of personal control. This article discusses the viability and potential implications of genetically essentializing political orientation. Genetic attributions of political orientation may lead to less derogation of political dissidents due to perceptions of lower personal control. Conversely, essentializing political orientation may lead to perceptions of more discrete group boundaries between political groups, higher perceived out-group homogeneity, and lower ascrip...