Vote Tory or Labour? It's all in the genes, say scientists

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They say opinions on a wide range of issues, from religion in schools to nuclear power and gay rights, are influenced by biology - and can be stubbornly resistant to reason.

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All in the genes: Whether you like Brown or Cameron, is down to your DNA

Dr John Alford, of Rice University in Houston, Texas, said: "Views are deep-seated and built into our brains.

"Trying to persuade someone not to be liberal is like trying to persuade someone not to have brown eyes. We have to rethink persuasion."

Dr Alford, who looked at the political opinions of 30,000 twins in the U.S. state of Virginia, found identical twins were more likely than nonidentical ones to give the same answers, reports New Scientist.

On the issue of whether property should be taxed, fourfifths of identical twins gave the same answer compared to two-thirds of non-identical twins.

At the same time, Dr John Jost, a psychologist at New York University, surveyed 88 studies involving 20,000 people in 12 countries.

He found that while some personality traits were obviously linked to politics - such as xenophobia being connected with the far-Right - there were many more intriguing connections.

For example, those who scored highly on a scale measuring fear of death were four times more likely to hold conservative views, he revealed.

Dogmatic types were also more conservative while those who expressed interest in new experiences tended to be liberals.

Previous neurological studies have also shown conservatives and liberals have different patterns of brain activity.

Dr Alford said: "We spend a lot of energy getting upset with the other side.

"We often think our opponents are misinformed or stubborn.

"Accepting people are born with their views changes that."