Ancestral Kinship and the Origins of Ideology

• In Event: New Perspectives on Ideology

Abstract

Families, with their rules and shared value systems, are not only the first institution ever created, they are, for most people, the first institution ever encountered. The structure of the family, I argue, underpins political beliefs. Tighter family structures are designed to enforce ingroup norms while reducing contact with outsiders. Looser family structures allow for efficient cooperation with strangers. Out-group distrust, respect for elders, and other values associated with tighter family structures are similar to values, such as authoritarianism, that political scientists have long believed to underpin right-wing cultural ideology and, among the less politically engaged, left-wing economic ideology. Using surveys of second generation immigrants, representing roughly 180 ethnicities living in 32 European countries, I first show that tighter kinship structure of a person’s ancestors predicts right-wing cultural attitudes. Among those who are less engaged in politics, tighter ancestral kinship structure also predicts left-wing economic attitudes. To ameliorate concerns of cross-cultural interpretability of survey questions, I replicate these findings using an independent dataset conducted in a single country. In a third study, I link ancestral kinship data to policy data from over 100 different countries. I show that stronger country-level ancestral kinship strength also increases anti-LGBT policies and welfare spending. This work indicates that our political beliefs are rooted not only in our own value systems, but the value systems and familial institutions created by our forebears.

Author

• Yphtach Lelkes, University of Pennsylvania