Families transmit values via memes rather than genes. Politics is a meme competition and conservatives have a 2.1/1.5 advantage in reproducing meme transmitters. So without other interventions, liberals need about a 29% advantage in meme effectiveness for parity.
But the memes that pass are more abstract, for example individual liberty. The modern application of that will lead to very different conclusions than parents came to during their time. Especially when you factor in the wacky paths modern cult-esque media tends to lead people down, and their kids getting to see the culmination of that.
Plus this "liberal vs conservative" dichotomy fell apart with the Republican party being taken over by destructive reactionaries. So personally as I've gotten older I've definitely gotten more conservative, but that has contributed to me voting Democrat rather than my previous Libertarian or overt protest vote.
Absolutely is to some extent, research strongly suggests it's brain structure, specifically around the amygdala. Facial structure can also be used as a predicator.
Kosinski, M., Khambatta, P., & Wang, Y. (2024). Facial recognition technology and human raters can predict political orientation from images of expressionless faces even when controlling for demographics and self-presentation. American Psychologist, 79(7), 942–955. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001295
Rasmussen SHR, Ludeke SG, Klemmensen R. Using deep learning to predict ideology from facial photographs: expressions, beauty, and extra-facial information. Sci Rep. 2023 Mar 31;13(1):5257. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-31796-1 PMID: 37002240; PMCID: PMC10066183.
Pedersen WS, Muftuler LT, Larson CL. Conservatism and the neural circuitry of threat: economic conservatism predicts greater amygdala-BNST connectivity during periods of threat vs safety. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2018 Jan 1;13(1):43-51. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsx133 PMID: 29126127; PMCID: PMC5793824.
Haas, I.J., Baker, M.N. & Gonzalez, F.J. Who Can Deviate from the Party Line? Political Ideology Moderates Evaluation of Incongruent Policy Positions in Insula and Anterior Cingulate Cortex. Soc Just Res 30, 355–380 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-017-0295-0
Kanai R, Feilden T, Firth C ...
Political Orientations Are Correlated with Brain Structure in Young Adults
Current Biology, 2011; 21, 677-680 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2011.03.017
I think the more interesting question is: are we, as a species, evolving away from conservatism centric biology over time? Or is it because we stopped putting lead into the environment? Because you can see the generational cohort differences over time.
Tangentially, I strongly believe this is related to why US religions are losing members with every generational cohort. This is covered in the below https://www.graphsaboutreligion.com posts, but unfortunately, they are paid and I don't have a way to unlock to share them. I will inquire with the author if I can compensate them to unlock these specific references.
The Politics of Religion - https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/510464/polit... - September 1st, 2023 (“Everything else being equal, the more religious the individual in the U.S. today, the higher the probability that the individual identifies with or leans toward the Republican party. I called this the “R and R rule” in my 2012 book on religion, found the phenomenon alive and well in my 2014 review of Gallup data, and now, nine years later, Gallup’s data confirm that this religiosity gap is more evident than ever.“)
TLDR Brain structure->Politics and Religious Belief System