Genes, culture and conservatism: A psychometric-genetic approach

The Wilson-Patterson conservatism scale was psychometrically evaluated using homogeneity analysis and item response theory models. Results showed that this scale actually measures two different aspects in people: on the one hand people vary in their agreement with either conservative or liberal catch-phrases and on the other hand people vary in their use of the ‘‘?’’ response category of the scale. A 9-item subscale was constructed, consisting of items that seemed to measure liberalism, and this subscale was subsequently used in a biometric analysis including genotype–environment interaction, correcting for non-homogeneous measurement error. Biometric results showed significant genetic and shared environmental influences, and significant genotype–environment interaction effects, suggesting that individuals with a genetic predisposition for conservatism show more non-shared variance but less shared variance than individuals with a genetic predisposition for liberalism.