Attachment and Political Personality are Heritable and Distinct Systems, and Both Share Genetics with Interpersonal Trust and Altruism

TY - JOUR

T1 - Attachment and Political Personality are Heritable and Distinct Systems, and Both Share Genetics with Interpersonal Trust and Altruism

AU - Kleppesto, Thomas Haarklau

AU - Czajkowski, Nikolai Olavi

AU - Vassend, Olav

AU - Roysamb, Espen

AU - Eftedal, Nikolai Haahjem

AU - Sheehy-Skeffington, Jennifer

AU - Ystrom, Eivind

AU - Kunst, Jonas R.

AU - Gjerde, Line C.

AU - Thomsen, Lotte

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2024.

PY - 2024/7

Y1 - 2024/7

N2 - The attachment and caregiving domains maintain proximity and care-giving behavior between parents and offspring, in a way that has been argued to shape people’s mental models of how relationships work, resulting in secure, anxious or avoidant interpersonal styles in adulthood. Several theorists have suggested that the attachment system is closely connected to orientations and behaviors in social and political domains, which should be grounded in the same set of familial experiences as are the different attachment styles. We use a sample of Norwegian twins (N = 1987) to assess the genetic and environmental relationship between attachment, trust, altruism, right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), and social dominance orientation (SDO). Results indicate no shared environmental overlap between attachment and ideology, nor even between the attachment styles or between the ideological traits, challenging conventional wisdom in developmental, social, and political psychology. Rather, evidence supports two functionally distinct systems, one for navigating intimate relationships (attachment) and one for navigating social hierarchies (RWA/SDO), with genetic overlap between traits within each system, and two distinct genetic linkages to trust and altruism. This is counter-posed to theoretical perspectives that link attachment, ideology, and interpersonal orientations through early relational experiences.

AB - The attachment and caregiving domains maintain proximity and care-giving behavior between parents and offspring, in a way that has been argued to shape people’s mental models of how relationships work, resulting in secure, anxious or avoidant interpersonal styles in adulthood. Several theorists have suggested that the attachment system is closely connected to orientations and behaviors in social and political domains, which should be grounded in the same set of familial experiences as are the different attachment styles. We use a sample of Norwegian twins (N = 1987) to assess the genetic and environmental relationship between attachment, trust, altruism, right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), and social dominance orientation (SDO). Results indicate no shared environmental overlap between attachment and ideology, nor even between the attachment styles or between the ideological traits, challenging conventional wisdom in developmental, social, and political psychology. Rather, evidence supports two functionally distinct systems, one for navigating intimate relationships (attachment) and one for navigating social hierarchies (RWA/SDO), with genetic overlap between traits within each system, and two distinct genetic linkages to trust and altruism. This is counter-posed to theoretical perspectives that link attachment, ideology, and interpersonal orientations through early relational experiences.

KW - Altruism

KW - Attachment

KW - Genetics

KW - Ideology

KW - Political personality

KW - Politics

KW - Right-wing authoritarianism

KW - Social dominance orientation

KW - Trust

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85194762939&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s10519-024-10185-y

DO - 10.1007/s10519-024-10185-y

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 38811431

AN - SCOPUS:85194762939

SN - 0001-8244

VL - 54

SP - 321

EP - 332

JO - Behavior Genetics

JF - Behavior Genetics

IS - 4

ER -