Let’s say your granny was one of those who had a huge portrait of Dom Mintoff hanging in her sitting room.

The Maltese wouldn’t know a political gene if it gassed them in Tal-Barrani. Give us the jurovixin and Eileen Montesin and we’re happy- Kristina Chetcuti

And let’s say you spent your childhood singing to Ġensna, and you grew up going to mass meetings decked in red from head to toe; there is still a good scientific chance that when you’re in the polling booth you’ll mark your first preference for the Nationalist Party.

Or it can be the opposite scenario: you could have grown up with the photo of your grandparents posing with Eddie Fenech Adami as pride of place in the living room, and for you a maduma is not a mere tile, and when you see it you want to put your hand up in a victory sign – yet it is still quite possible that you’ll vote Labour.

Because, according to scientists, it does not all depend on the social environment. Political leanings, it seems, are influenced by something which is beyond our conscious control but by the structure of our brains.

A book by Jonathan Haidt, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, cites evidence that shows that some people’s brains are less alert to threats and take pleasure from novelty, variety and diversity. These people are likely to become liberals.

Then, he says, there are people whose brains are wired to be more cautious and less open, and these are likely to become conservatives.

This follows on research by the University of California, where James Fowler identified this particular gene variant as DRD4. It is this DNA strand which can influence how we think and how we see the world.

According to Dr Fowler, a professor of political science and medical genetics: “These findings suggest that political affiliation is not based solely on the kind of social environment people experience.”

So here’s a little test this morning to quickly determine whether you have this ‘liberal’ gene or not:

Will you be scrupulously recycling this newspaper after you’ve read it?

Have been toying with the idea of purchasing an electric car?

Do you think Americans were stupid to vote George W Bush into power?

Do you think religion is a superstitious repression?

Do you think all societies should be completely secular?

Are you anxious about the plight of minorities?

Do you think punishment should not be about shame and embarrassment? Do you think political ideologies should focus mainly on defending the vulnerable and preventing suffering?

If the answer to all these questions is a resounding ‘yes’, then the probabilities are that you have the gene, a variant of a dopamine receptor, linked to novelty-seeking.

One report I came across even claims that this gene could also be the reason why some people defect or show signs of defecting from the party in which they were raised, which, of course, makes you think: JPO? Franco Debono?

But I doubt that in practice these geno-politics are applicable to Malta. We don’t tend to support a party for its political ideology. Possibly because on paper, our parties are completely on the same wavelength.

Unlike in the US, for example, where Democrats are left-wing and Republicans are right-wing, in Malta both parties are very much centre-leftish. Both the Nationalist party and the Labour party are kind of semi-socialists: both inching closer to favouring a nanny state.

Parties, of course, reflect what’s happening on the ground. As a people we are happy to earn a modest salary and live modestly but be sheltered against the realities of international affairs by the subsidies of a benign government. We all love a socialist paradise and both parties mould their ideologies on that.

Which means it does not make one jot of difference to us Maltese whether we have the gene or not. “Ha!” said a friend, “the (majority of the) Maltese wouldn’t know a political gene if it gassed them in Tal-Barrani. Give us the jurovixin and Eileen Montesin and we’re happy.”

Another friend believes we tend to support the party that will guarantee the better financial well-being of the nation, and we don’t even consider the ideologies of the candidate we are voting for: “Some elections back I voted for George Pullicino because I felt sorry for him, you know, being chubby and all,” he quipped.

If political identity is rooted in our DNA, then perhaps scientists ought to take Malta as a case study and determine whether there is a PN gene or a PL gene.

Meanwhile if you need an antidote to the unrelenting storm about Mintoff, bury yourself into Jonathan Haidt’s book The Righteous Mind.

krischetcuti@gmail.com