Nature & Nurture #40: Dr. Randy Thornhill - Parasite-Stress Theory & The Evolution of Conservatism

[@mimijapar9997]

what about covid induced parasitic wedge? what do you guys think

[@joantendler6518]

I know one parasite that has the opposite effect of the parasites that generate disgust, which are probably gut parasites. People infected with the brain parasite toxoplasmosis gondii can be actually attracted to things that disgust many people, like sado-masochism, having sex with animals, eating feces, and homosexual sex. Toxoplasmosis has been linked to Asperger's, Tourette's, anxiety, bipolar, and more. These people have an over-active brain, so they can be very active and influential, as they're high in testosterone, glutamate, and dopamine-all high-powered hormones. So, different parasites may be the real cause of our polarized politics!

[@R0binat0r]

actually, we do have (a preprint of) the paper about toxoplasmosis infections and political values "Le Petit Machiavellian Prince: Effects of latent toxoplasmosis on political beliefs and values", you can find in in PsyArXiv

[@joantendler6518]

@@R0binat0r Wow! The paper was very interesting-a major difference between men and women. It seems, from your analysis, that these women could be very influential, because of high aggression, while the men are less so, but they're all risk takers. You didn't mention OCD and anxiety in the paper, but I feel that these personality traits drive many to positions of power, more than actually feeling strongly about an issue-they basically want control. In the US, many women are very aggressive and influential in the Democratic Party, while men are more Republican, and very stubborn-each intent on controlling the other. And it's not good for a nation to have risk takers in control. I've felt that we pretty much have a war of the sexes going on here, so maybe really a war of parasites! Thanks so much for the link!

[@MarmaladeINFP]

​@@joantendler6518 - If I remember correctly, the gender imbalance of partisanship is not equal. I think there is a disproportionate number of men in the Republican Party and in certain right-wing ideologies like right-libertarianism. But gender is more evenly split in the Democratic Party. But I could be wrong about that, as it's been a long while since I've seen the data. It would make sense, though, as Democrats are a big tent party, whereas Republicans are not. Democrats have a broader spread along all demographics: many wealthy and poor, many whites and non-whites, many high educated and low educated, many high IQ and low IQ. This corresponds with a broader range of high and low conservatism and authoritarianism. Republicans often are more middling on some of these demographics with, for example, more middle class, more moderately educated, more average IQ. And where Republicans are high on one end of the demographic, they are less balanced toward the other end or among differing demographics. This is why they fall more strongly one ideological side. I'd have no idea if this might relate to parasites at all. And if so, how it could relate. But one suspects that Democrats would have a higher spread on the rate of parasite load, especially as parasitism strongly correlates to socioeconomic class. It's easy to forget that Hillary Clinton not only won poor minorities but even did slightly better than Donald Trump among poor whites.