That’s definitely an interesting question, so I’m glad to see you discovered the current psychology thread. I’m inclined to believe it largely is. We can’t know for sure if genes play no role, but I find it hard to believe they are anywhere near as important as the surrounding culture, at least in this respect.
If the acceptance of such a parasite were genetically ingrained, I really doubt you’d see so much resistance (not only now, but throughout history). Other evidence is the personal accounts of refugees like those of North Korea. The stories they tell about their feelings now that they have “tasted freedom” and the like, suggest that if anything, there is a genetic predisoposition to the liberty. Indeed one may contend that this is just sample selection bias, and that if there were a genetic componant at play, such people who are out of the country to tell such tales would likely be out of the country because of such genes in the first place.
But if you listen to what they say about the things they used to believe, and how they went along with it just like everyone else, and believed he was an all-kind Dear Leader, and that everything good they had, was because of him, it points to them being just as accepting of the parasite as anyone else. You’ll find that for most of these escapees, they have some extreme and dramatic event in their life that they can point to that triggered their interest in fleeing…Kim had their family murdered, or they were put in a concentration camp, or whatever. They believed he was a Dear Leader until the truth was shoved into their face and not just affected them personally, but literally changed their life. It was in these moments that their opinion changed and their view of the relationship with the dictator became one of resentment.
Even one young guy who was literally born in a concentration camp…as in, he knew of nothing else…only had to hear stories of the kind of meals a new inmate had before he was put in the camp, and he began to have a fire lit inside himself.