From John Richards
The article on neophilia, “the love of the new”, raises the question of whether political affinities are inherited (10 June, p 52).
Surely a predilection for newness equates with radicalism and a resistance to novelty with conservatism. This is not a new concept. It dates back at least to W. S. Gilbert’s Iolanthe: “Every boy and every gal that’s born into the world alive is either a little liberal or else a little conservative.”
However, the suggestion that enthusiasm for novelty depends partly on variations in the gene for monoamine oxidase A holds out the hope, one day, of a cure for right-wing conservatism.
East Preston, West Sussex, UK
