Some Motivational Correlates of Attitudes Toward Political Participation

Krause, Merton S.; Houlihan, Kevin; Oberlander, Mark I.; Carson, Lawrence

doi:10.2307/2110311

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…This is commonly interpreted primarily as a result of early in life socialization and social learning (see e.g. Krause et al, 1970;Plutzer, 2002). Still, the degree to which people believe in 'doing one's duty as a citizen participant' (Krause et al, 1970: 383) may also be genetically influenced since we know that pro-social attitudes and behaviors are heritable (e.g.…”

Section: The Genetics Of Political Participation Efficacy and Civic Dutymentioning

confidence: 99%

The genetics of political participation, civic duty, and political efficacy across cultures: Denmark and the United States

Klemmensen

Hatemi

Hobolt³

et al. 2012

Journal of Theoretical Politics

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Recent studies have shown that variation in political attitudes and participation can be attributed to both genes and the environment. This finding raises the question of why genes matter to participation, and by which pathways. Two hypotheses suggest that feelings of civic duty and sense of political efficacy intermediate the relationship between genes and political participation and, thus, that these traits have a common heritable component. If so, how robust are the relationships across cultural contexts? Utilizing two new twin studies on political traits, one in Denmark and one in the United States, we show that the heritability of political participation and political efficacy is remarkably similar across cultures. Moreover, most of the covariation between efficacy and political participation is accounted for by a common underlying genetic component.

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Section: The Genetics Of Political Participation Efficacy and Civic Dutymentioning

confidence: 99%

The genetics of political participation, civic duty, and political efficacy across cultures: Denmark and the United States

Klemmensen

Hatemi

Hobolt³

et al. 2012

Journal of Theoretical Politics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Although we are not the first to suggest a link between genes and political participation, this study is the first attempt to test the idea empirically. Some early work studied the importance of personality in political participation, but this literature focused exclusively on environmental factors, asserting that people who are reared in similar ways will have similar personalities (Lane 1959; Levinson 1958) or that the role of personality was to mediate social influences on participation (Krause et al 1970). Other early work explored the importance of adolescent socialization in the development of political behaviors, but these scholars never considered the genetic link between parent and child.…”

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confidence: 99%

Genetic Variation in Political Participation

2008

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T he decision to vote has puzzled scholars for decades. Theoretical models predict little or no variation in participation in (Aldrich 1993;Downs 1957;Feddersen and Sandroni 2006;Riker and Ordeshook 1968). When one person votes, everyone with the same preferences benefits from the increased likelihood that their preferred outcome will result. Yet those who do vote must bear the cost of time and effort required to learn about election alternatives and go to the polls. In large populations, the probability that a single vote will change the outcome of an election is miniscule (Gelman, King, and Boscardin 1998), meaning that even very small costs to the individual typically outweigh the expected benefits he or she would receive from voting. As a result, classic game theoretic models that assume indi- viduals are self-interested and fully optimizing in their behavior show that the equilibrium amount of voter turnout approaches zero as the population becomes large (Palfrey and Rosenthal 1985). Yet in spite of this theoretical result, millions of people do vote, suggesting that something other than self-interest or optimizing behavior drives their decision (Bendor, Diermeier, and Ting 2003;Feddersen and Sandroni 2006;Fowler 2006b). In addition, the fact that millions of people abstain suggests that there may be inherent variation in the human tendency to participate in politics.Empirical models of turnout and political participation have tried to explain this variation using numerous covariates inspired by a vast literature (Plutzer 2002;Timpone 1998;Verba, Schlozman, and Brady 1995), including demographic factors like age (Strate et al.

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“…Early work studied the importance of personality in political participation, but this literature focused exclusively on environmental factors, asserting that people who are reared in similar ways will have similar personalities (Lane 1959;Levinson 1958) or that the role of personality is to mediate social influences on participation (Krause et al 1970). Additional earlier studies focused on the importance of adolescent socialization in the development of political behaviors, but these scholars never considered the role of genes in the link between parent and child.…”

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confidence: 99%

Two Genes Predict Voter Turnout

Fowler

Dawes

2008

The Journal of Politics

216

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Fowler, Baker, and Dawes (2008) recently showed in two independent studies of twins that voter turnout has very high heritability. Here we investigate two specific genes that may contribute to variation in voting behavior. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we show that individuals with a polymorphism of the MAOA gene are significantly more likely to have voted in the 2004 presidential election. We also find evidence that an association between a polymorphism of the 5HTT gene and voter turnout is moderated by religious attendance. These are the first results ever to link specific genes to political behavior. Social scientists have shown that basic political attitudes like liberalism and conservatism are likely to be heritable (Alford, Funk, and Hibbing 2005, Hatemi et al. 2007). While the choice of a particular candidate or party does not appear to be heritable, a significant proportion of the variation in the decision to participate in politics can be attributed to genetic factors. Fowler, Baker, and Dawes (2008) recently studied the voting behavior of two populations of twins and showed that heritability accounted for 53% of the variation in validated turnout of those living in Los Angeles county and 72% of the self-reported turnout in a nationally representative sample of young adults. They also showed that heritability accounted for 60% of the variation in a general index of political participation, including contributing to campaigns, running for office, volunteering for political organizations, and attending protests. These results were the first to suggest that humans exhibit inherent variability in their willingness to participate in politics.However, these initial results based on twin studies beg the question ''which genes?'' The natural place to start the search for such genes is among those that have already been shown to account for variation in social behavior. And among these, MAOA and 5HTT are prime candidates. These two genes transcribe neurochemicals that exert a strong influence on the serotonin system in parts of the brain that regulate fear, trust, and social interaction (Bertolino et al. 2005; Eisenberger et al. 2007;Hariri et al. 2002;Hariri et al. 2005;Heinz et al. 2005;Meyer-Lindenberg et al. 2006). MAOA and 5HTT have been studied for more than 20 years, and much is known about the way different versions of their genes regulate transcription, metabolism, and signal transfers between neurons, all of which have an effect on social interactions (Craig 2007). In particular, the less transcriptionally efficient alleles of these genes have been associated with a variety of antisocial behaviors (Rhee and Waldman 2002).In this article, we hypothesize that people with more transcriptionally efficient alleles of the MAOA and 5HTT genes are more likely to vote. An association between a gene and political behavior may also be moderated by environmental factors. This phenomenon is known as a gene-environment (GxE) interaction (Shanahan and Hofer 2005). We therefore...

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Some Motivational Correlates of Attitudes Toward Political Participation

Cited by 10 publications

References 0 publications

The genetics of political participation, civic duty, and political efficacy across cultures: Denmark and the United States

The genetics of political participation, civic duty, and political efficacy across cultures: Denmark and the United States

Genetic Variation in Political Participation

Two Genes Predict Voter Turnout

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