The Biological Ballot: How AI Influences Political Behavior Through Epigenetics
The intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and behavioral epigenetics represents a new frontier in political science—one where the "battle for the mind" moves from the psychological to the molecular. While we traditionally view political persuasion as a matter of logic or emotion, emerging research suggests that the hyper-personalized, high-stress environments created by AI can actually alter gene expression, "locking in" political dispositions and stress responses through epigenetic mechanisms. The Mechanism: Environmental Stimuli to Gene Expression Epigenetics is the study of how behaviors and environment cause changes that affect the way your genes work. Unlike genetic mutations, these changes do not alter your DNA sequence; instead, they act like a dimmer switch, turning genes "on" or "off" through processes like DNA methylation. AI-driven platforms—social media algorithms, deepfakes, and generative misinformation—act as pot...