PROGRESSblock. That variation in the building block (called a nucleic acid) made
one form of the gene more active than the other. People who had the
more active form were almost twice as likely to have started a new busi-
ness compared to those who had the less active form.
It’s worth noting that it’s not just the United States that has been
shaped by dopaminergic immigrants. The Global Entrepreneurship
Monitor, an ongoing project sponsored by Babson College and the
London School of Economics, found that the four nations with the
highest per capita creation of new companies are the United States,
Canada, Israel, and Australia—three of which are among the top nine
countries with the highest immigrant populations in the world, and one
of which, Israel, is less than three generations from its founding as an
immigrant state.
There are a limited number of highly dopaminergic people in the
world, so one country’s gain is another country’s loss. Many American
immigrants came from Europe, a migration that boosted the dopami-
nergic gene pool in the United States, leaving Europe with a residual
population more likely to take an H&N approach to life.^1
The Pew Research Center conducted a survey to learn more about
the differences between Americans and Europeans, and published
their findings in a report titled The American–Western European Values Gap.
Although values are influenced by many factors other than genetics,
some of the questions they asked were closely related to the dopaminer-
gic personality. For example, they asked, “Is success in life determined
by forces outside our control?” In Germany, 72 percent said yes. In
France it was 57 percent, and in Britain, 41 percent. However, only a
little more than a third of U.S. respondents said outside forces were in
control, while the majority took a more dopaminergic outlook.
The dopaminergic difference shows up in other questions, too.
Americans were more likely to approve of the use of military force—the
1 In chapter five, we discussed ways in which American liberals, representing the
party of change, tend to be more dopaminergic than conservatives, who are more
likely to support maintenance of the status quo. In Europe it’s reversed. Liberal gov-
ernments generally represent the status quo, while the right-wing parties advocate
for radical change.