At bloggingheads tv, Bob Wright suggests that people who have parents in positions of ethical responsibility to institutions that serve the larger community (doctors, lawyers, judges, soldiers), or as members of the establishment, might have more conservative tendencies. 

This seems to make intuitive sense on some level:  You go where your parents and those who love you go.  You tend to value what they value. 

Here’s a wikipedia etymology:  “The term is derived from the Latin, conservāre, to conserve; “to keep, guard, observe”

So if your parents have the responsibility of serving an institution like law or medicine, or perhaps the military, your experience is deeply colored by their experience.  Many of your deeper ideas are shaped by such institutions.   Perhaps these ideas, in part, are to “keep, guard,” and “observe.”