Heritability in Political Interest and Efficacy across Cultures: Denmark and the United States

Klemmensen, Robert; Hatemi, Peter K.; Hobolt, Sara B.; Skytthe, Axel; Nørgaard, Asbjørn Sonne

doi:10.1375/twin.15.1.15

Cited by 50 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Importantly, many of these antecedents have been demonstrated to have a genetic basis [6,7,39,40]. Based on how these previous findings might differentially affect various forms of engagement according to the typology developed above, we have several expectations regarding the genetic basis of the behaviours we study.…”

Section: Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 97%

Genes, psychological traits and civic engagement

Dawes

Settle

Loewen

et al. 2015

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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One contribution of 13 to a theme issue 'Solving the puzzle of collective action through inter-individual differences: evidence from primates and humans'. Civic engagement is a classic example of a collective action problem: while civic participation improves life in the community as a whole, it is individually costly and thus there is an incentive to free ride on the actions of others. Yet, we observe significant inter-individual variation in the degree to which people are in fact civically engaged. Early accounts reconciling the theoretical prediction with empirical reality focused either on variation in individuals' material resources or their attitudes, but recent work has turned to genetic differences between individuals. We show an underlying genetic contribution to an index of civic engagement (0.41), as well as for the individual acts of engagement of volunteering for community or public service activities (0.33), regularly contributing to charitable causes (0.28) and voting in elections (0.27). There are closer genetic relationships between donating and the other two activities; volunteering and voting are not genetically correlated. Further, we show that most of the correlation between civic engagement and both positive emotionality and verbal IQ can be attributed to genes that affect both traits. These results enrich our understanding of the way in which genetic variation may influence the wide range of collective action problems that individuals face in modern community life.

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Section: Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 97%

Genes, psychological traits and civic engagement

Dawes

Settle

Loewen

et al. 2015

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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“…This work includes twin and family models that partition sources of human variation into elements of “genes” and “environment” (Alford, Funk and Hibbing 2005; Bouchard et al 1990; Cranmer and Dawes 2012; Eaves, Eysenck and Martin 1989; Hatemi et al 2007; Klemmensen et al 2012; Martin et al 1986; Smith et al 2012; Stam, Von Hagen-Jamar and Worthington 2012; Sturgis et al 2010; Verhulst, Eaves and Hatemi 2012). As a matter of statistical application, the classic twin design (CTD) estimates genetic and environmental influences independently; yet the theoretical premise behind the twin model is based upon quantitative genetics and assumes that within each of the genetic and environmental parameters resides the potential for an individual’s genes to be correlated with, or conditional upon, environmental stimuli (Plomin 1994; Rutter 2006).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Influence of Major Life Events on Economic Attitudes in a World of Gene‐Environment Interplay

Hatemi

2013

American J Political Sci

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The role of “genes” on political attitudes has gained attention across disciplines. However, person-specific experiences have yet to be incorporated into models that consider genetic influences. Relying on a gene-environment interplay approach, this study explicates how life-events, such as losing one’s job or suffering a financial loss, influence economic policy attitudes. The results indicate genetic and environmental variance on support for unions, immigration, capitalism, socialism and property tax is moderated by financial risks. Changes in the magnitude of genetic influences, however, are temporary. After two years, the phenotypic effects of the life events remain on most attitudes, but changes in the sources of individual differences do not. Univariate twin models that estimate the independent contributions of genes and environment on the variation of attitudes appear to provide robust baseline indicators of sources of individual differences. These estimates, however, are not event or day specific. In this way, genetic influences add stability, while environment cues change, and this process is continually updated.

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“…At the time, the vast majority of the discipline had little exposure to the natural sciences. But political scientists have been rapidly learning the new methods in genetics that have been developed in the past few years (Cranmer and Dawes 2012;Dawes and Fowler 2009;Hatemi, Funk, et al 2009;Littvay 2012;Loewen and Dawes 2012;McDermott and Hatemi 2011;Settle et al 2010;Settle, Dawes, and Fowler 2009;Stam, Von Hagen-Jamar, and Worthington 2012;Verhulst 2012;Weber, Johnson, and Arceneaux 2011), and we are now working directly with geneticists on a variety of political outcomes and behaviors (Arceneaux, Johnson, and Maes 2012;Benjamin et al 2012b;Eaves and Hatemi 2008;Fowler, Baker, and Dawes 2008;Hatemi et al 2007;Hatemi, Alford, et al 2009;Hatemi, Dawes, et al 2011;Hatemi, Gillepsie, et al 2011;Klemmensen et al 2011;McDermott et al 2009;Medland and Hatemi 2008;Verhulst and Estabrook 2012;Verhulst, Hatemi, Eaves 2012a;2012b;Verhulst, Hatemi, and Martin 2010). But political scientists have been rapidly learning the new methods in genetics that have been developed in the past few years (Cranmer and Dawes 2012;Dawes and Fowler 2009;Hatemi, Funk, et al 2009;Littvay 2012;Loewen and Dawes 2012;McDermott and Hatemi 2011;Settle et al 2010;Settle, Dawes, and Fowler 2009;…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

In Defense of Genopolitics

Fowler

Dawes

2013

Am Polit Sci Rev

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doi:10.1017/S0003055413000063 The American Political Science Review recently published a critique of an article we published in the Journal of Politics in 2008. In that article we showed that variants of the genes 5HTT and MAOA were significantly associated with voter turnout in a sample of 2,300 subjects from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Here, we address the critique first by conducting a replication study using an independent sample of 9,300 subjects. This study replicates the gene-environment interaction of the 5HTT gene variant with church attendance, but not the association with MAOA. We then focus on the general argument of the critique, showing that many of its characterizations of the literature in genetics and in political science are misleading or incorrect. We conclude by illustrating the ways in which genopolitics has already made a lasting contribution to the field of political science and by offering guidelines for future studies in genopolitics that are based on state-of-the-art recommendations from the field of behavior genetics. In2005, the American Political Science Review published an article that used data on political attitudes from identical and fraternal twins in the Unite

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Heritability in Political Interest and Efficacy across Cultures: Denmark and the United States

Cited by 50 publications

References 28 publications

Genes, psychological traits and civic engagement

Genes, psychological traits and civic engagement

The Influence of Major Life Events on Economic Attitudes in a World of Gene‐Environment Interplay

In Defense of Genopolitics

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