Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-04T13:29:11.691Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Genopolitics and the Science of Genetics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2013

EVAN CHARNEY  and
WILLIAM ENGLISH
EVAN CHARNEY*
Affiliation:
Duke University
WILLIAM ENGLISH*
Affiliation:
Harvard University
*
Evan Charney is Faculty Fellow, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences; Faculty Researcher, Duke Institute for Genome Science and Policy; and Associate Professor of the Practice of Public Policy and Political Science, Duke University, Rubenstein 250, Durham, NC 27708 (echar@duke.edu).
William English is a Lab Fellow, Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University, 124 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (wenglish@ethics.harvard.edu).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In an earlier article we challenged the findings of Fowler and Dawes (FD) that two genes predict voter turnout as part of a more general critique of “genopolitics.” FD now acknowledge that their finding of a “significant” direct association between MAOA and voting was incorrect, but claim to have replicated their finding of an “indirect” association between 5HTT, self-reported church attendance, and self-reported voting. We show that this finding is likely driven by population stratification and omitted variable bias. We then explain why, from the standpoints of genetics, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology, genopolitics is a fundamentally misguided undertaking; we also respond to FD's charge that some of our previous statements concerning genetics are “highly misleading,” “extremely disingenuous,” and “even incorrect.” We show that their criticisms demonstrate a lack of awareness of some basic principles in genetics and of discoveries in molecular genetics over the past 50 years.

Type
FORUM: THE DEBATE OVER GENOPOLITICS
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 107 , Issue 2 , May 2013 , pp. 382 - 395
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Alford, J. R., Funk, C. L., and Hibbing, J. R.. 2005. “Are Political Orientations Genetically Transmitted?” American Political Science Review 99 (2): 153–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allis, C. D., Jenuwein, T., and Reinberg, D.. 2007. Epigenetics. Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.Google Scholar
Baillie, J. K., Barnett, M. W., Upton, K. R., Gerhardt, D. J., Richmond, T. A., De Sapio, F., Brennan, P. M., et al. 2011. “Somatic Retrotransposition Alters the Genetic Landscape of the Human Brain.” Nature 479 (7374): 534–37.Google Scholar
Bartels, L. M. 2000. “Partisanship and Voting Behavior, 1952–1996.” American Journal of Political Science 44 (1): 35–50.Google Scholar
Bird, A. 2007. “Perceptions of Epigenetics.” Nature 447 (7143): 396–98.Google Scholar
Bouaziz, M., Ambroise, C., and Guedj, M.. 2011. “Accounting for Population Stratification in Practice: A Comparison of the Main Strategies Dedicated to Genome-Wide Association Studies.” PLoS ONE 6 (12): e28845.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bradshaw, M., and Ellison, C. G.. 2008. “Do Genetic Factors Influence Religious Life? Findings from a Behavior Genetic Analysis of Twin Siblings.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 47 (4): 529–44.Google Scholar
Brooks, C., and Brady, D.. 1999. “Income, Economic Voting, and Long-Term Political Change in the U.S., 1952–1996.” Social Forces 77 (4): 1339–74.Google Scholar
Champagne, F. A. 2010. “Epigenetic Influence of Social Experiences across the Lifespan.” Developmental Psychobiology 52 (4): 299–311.Google Scholar
Charney, E. 2012. “Behavior Genetics and Postgenomics.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 35 (5): 331–58.Google Scholar
Charney, E., and English, W.. 2012. “Candidate Genes and Political Behavior.” American Political Science Review 106 (1): 1–34.Google Scholar
Chatters, L. M., Taylor, R. J., Jackson, J. S., and Lincoln, K. D.. 2008. “Race and Ethnic Differences in Religious Involvement: African Americans, Caribbean Blacks and Non-Hispanic Whites.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 32 (7): 1143–63.Google Scholar
Chialvo, D. R. 2010. “Emergent Complex Neural Dynamics.” Nature Physics 6 (10): 744–50.Google Scholar
Clayton-Smith, J, and Laan, L.. 2003. “Angelman Syndrome: A Review of the Clinical and Genetic Aspects.” Journal of Medical Genetics 40 (2): 87–95.Google Scholar
Coufal, N. G., Gage, F. H., Garcia-Perez, J. L., Lovci, M. T., Moran, J. V., Morell, M., Mu, Y., Shea, K. S., Peng, G. E., and Yeo, G. W.. 2009. “L1 Retrotransposition in Human Neural Progenitor Cells.” Nature 460: 1127–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
De, S. 2011. “Somatic Mosaicism in Healthy Human Tissues.” Trends in Genetics 27 (6): 217–23.Google Scholar
Dear, P. H. 2009. “Copy-number Variation: The End of the Human Genome?” Trends in Biotechnology 27 (8): 448–54.Google Scholar
Delhanty, J. D. 2011. “Inherited Aneuploidy: Germline Mosaicism.” Cytogenetic Genome Research 133 (2–4): 136–40.Google Scholar
DeLorenzo, R. J., Hauser, W. A., Towne, A. R., Boggs, J. G., Pellock, J. M., Penberthy, L., Garnett, L., Fortner, C. A., and Ko, D.. 1996. “A Prospective, Population-based Epidemiologic Study of Status Epilepticus in Richmond, Virginia.” Neurology 46 (4): 1029–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Devlin, B., Bacanu, S. A., and Roeder, K.. 2004. “Genomic Control to the Extreme.” Nature Genetics 36 (11):1129–30; author reply, 31.Google Scholar
de Vries, J., de Graaf, N. D., and Eisinga, R.. 2009. “Biases in the Effects of Family Background Characteristics on Voting Preference: The Dutch Case.” Electoral Studies 28 (2): 204–17.Google Scholar
Droste, F., Do, A., and Gross, T.. 2013. “Analytical Investigation of Self-Organized Criticality in Neural Networks.” Journal of The Royal Society Interface 10 (78): 1–8.Google Scholar
Edwards, A., Rollmann, S. M., Morgan, T. J., and Mackay, T. F. C.. 2006. “Quantitative Genomics of Aggressive Behavior in Drosophila melanogaster .” PLoS Genetics 2 (9): 1386–95.Google Scholar
Eguíluz, V. M., Chialvo, D. R., Cecchi, G. A., Baliki, M., and Apkarian, A. V.. 2005. “Scale-Free Brain Functional Networks.” Physical Review Letters 94 (1): 1–4.Google Scholar
Fagiolini, M., Jensen, C. L., and Champagne, F. A.. 2009. “Epigenetic Influences on Brain Development and Plasticity.” Current Opinion in Neurobiology 19 (2): 207–12.Google Scholar
Faulkner, G. J. 2011. “Retrotransposons: Mobile and Mutagenic from Conception to Death.” FEBS Letters 585 (11): 1589–94.Google Scholar
Fontdevila, A. 2011. The Dynamic Genome: A Darwinian Approach. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fowler, J. H., and Dawes, C. T.. 2008. “Two Genes Predict Voter Turnout.” Journal of Politics 70 (03): 579–94.Google Scholar
Frisco, M. L., Muller, C., and Dodson, K.. 2004. “Participation in Voluntary Youth-serving Associations and Early Adult Voting Behavior.” Social Science Quarterly 85 (3): 660–76.Google Scholar
“From Gene to Protein: Gene Expression Quantification Offers New Insights.” 2011. PHYSorg.com. http://phys.org/news/2011-05-gene-protein-quantification-insights.html.Google Scholar
Garland, T., Jr, , and Kelly, S. A.. 2006. “Phenotypic Plasticity and Experimental Evolution.” Journal of Experimental Biology 209 (12): 2344–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gelernter, J., Goldman, D., and Risch, N.. 1993. “The A1 Allele at the D2 Dopamine Receptor Gene and Alcoholism: A Reappraisal.” Journal of the American Medical Association 269 (13): 1673–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hao, K., Chudin, E., Greenawalt, D., and Schadt, E. E.. 2010. “Magnitude of Stratification in Human Populations and Impacts on Genome Wide Association Studies.” PLoS ONE 5 (1): e8695.Google Scholar
Hart, D., Donnelly, T. M., Youniss, J., and Atkins, R.. 2007. “High School Community Service as a Predictor of Adult Voting and Volunteering.” American Educational Research Journal 44 (1): 197–219.Google Scholar
He, B. J., Zempel, J. M., Snyder, A. Z., and Raichle, M. E.. 2010. “The Temporal Structures and Functional Significance of Scale-free Brain Activity.” Neuron 66 (3): 353–69.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Helgason, A., Yngvadottir, B., Hrafnkelsson, B., Gulcher, J., and Stefansson, K.. 2005. “An Icelandic Example of the Impact of Population Structure on Association Studies.” Nature Genetics 37 (1): 90–95.Google Scholar
Iourov, I. Y., Vorsanova, S. G., and Yurov, Y. B.. 2006. “Chromosomal Variation in Mammalian Neuronal Cells: Known Facts and Attractive Hypotheses.” International Review of Cytology 249: 143–91.Google Scholar
Iskow, R. C., McCabe, M. T., Mills, R. E., Torene, S., Pittard, W. S., Neuwald, A. F., Van Meir, E. G., Vertino, P. M., and Devine, S. E.. 2010. “Natural Mutagenesis of Human Genomes by Endogenous Retrotransposons.” Cell 141 (7): 1253–61.Google Scholar
Julio, J. R. 2009. “Attitude-dependent Altruism, Turnout and Voting.” Public Choice 140 (1–2): 223–44.Google Scholar
Kaushal, D., Contos, J. J. A., Treuner, K., Yang, A. H., Kingsbury, M. A., Rehen, S. K., McConnell, M. J., et al. 2003. “Alteration of Gene Expression by Chromosome Loss in the Postnatal Mouse Brain.” Journal of Neuroscience 23 (13): 5599–606.Google Scholar
Khavari, D. A., Sen, G. L., and Rinn, J. L.. 2010. “DNA Methylation and Epigenetic Control of Cellular Differentiation.” Cell Cycle 9 (19): 3880–83.Google Scholar
Kingsbury, M. A. 2005. “Aneuploid Neurons Are Functionally Active and Integrated unto Brain Circuitry.” Proceedings of the National Acadamy of Sciences USA 102: 6143–47.Google Scholar
Knip, M., Veijola, R., Virtanen, S. M., Hyoty, H., Vaarala, O., and Akerblom, H. K.. 2012. “Environmental Triggers and Determinants of Type 1 Diabetes.” Diabetes 54 (Suppl 2): S125–36.Google Scholar
Lopez, M., and Moore, K.. 2006. “Participation in Sports and Civic Engagement.” CIRCLE: The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement. http://www.civicyouth.org/PopUps/FactSheets/FS_06_Sports_and_Civic_Engagement.pdf.Google Scholar
Lotrich, F. E., Pollock, B. G., and Ferrell, R. E.. 2003. “Serotonin Transporter Promoter Polymorphism in African Americans: Allele Frequencies and Implications for Treatment.” American Journal of Pharmacogenomics 3 (2): 145–47.Google Scholar
Maddox, K. B. 2004. “Perspectives on Racial Phenotypicality Bias.” Personality and Social Psychology Review 8 (4): 383–401.Google Scholar
Marler, P. L., and Hadaway, C. K.. 1999. “Testing the Attendance Gap in a Conservative Church.” Sociology of Religion 60 (2): 175–86.Google Scholar
McDermott, R., Tingley, D., Cowden, J., Frazzetto, G., and Johnson, D. D. P.. 2009. “Monoamine Oxidase A Gene (MAOA) Predicts Behavioral Aggression Following Provocation.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 106 (7): 2118–23.Google Scholar
McNulty, J. E., Dowling, C. M., and Ariotti, M. H.. 2009. “Driving Saints to Sin: How Increasing the Difficulty of Voting Dissuades Even the Most Motivated Voters.” Political Analysis 17 (4): 435–55.Google Scholar
Muotri, A. R., Marchetto, M. C. N., Coufal, N. G., Oefner, R., Yeo, G., Nakashima, K., and Gage, F. H.. 2010. “L1 Retrotransposition in Neurons Is Modulated by MeCP2.” Nature 468 (7322): 443–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mychasiuk, R., Zahir, S., Schmold, N., Ilnytskyy, S., Kovalchuk, O., and Gibb, R.. 2012. “Parental Enrichment and Offspring Development: Modifications to Brain, Behavior and the Epigenome.” Behavioral and Brain Research 228 (2): 294–98.Google Scholar
Nie, N. H., Junn, J., and Stehlik Barry, K.. 1996. Education and Democratic Citizenship in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Noskova, T., Pivac, N., Nedic, G., Kazantseva, A., and Seler, D. M.. 2008. “Ethnic Differences in the Serotonin Transporter Polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) in Several European Populations.” Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology: Biological Psychiatry 32 (7): 1735–39.Google Scholar
Notini, A. J., Craig, J. M., and White, S. J.. 2008. “Copy Number Variation and Mosaicism.” Cytogenetic and Genome Research 123 (1–4): 270–77.Google Scholar
Pigliucci, M., Murren, C. J., and Schlichting, C. D.. 2006. “Phenotypic Plasticity and Evolution by Genetic Assimilation.” Journal of Experimental Biology 209 (12): 2362–67.Google Scholar
Plenz, D. 2012. “Neuronal Avalanches and Coherence Potentials.” European Physical Journal Special Topics 205 (1): 259–301.Google Scholar
Popper, K. R. 2002. The Logic of Scientific Discovery. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Price, A. L., Helgason, A., Palsson, S., and Stefansson, K.. 2009. “The Impact of Divergence Time on the Nature of Population Structure: An Example from Iceland.” PLoS Genetics 5 (6): e1000505.Google Scholar
Price, A. L., Zaitlen, N. A., Reich, D., and Patterson, N.. 2010. “New Approaches to Population Stratification in Genome-wide Association Studies.” Nature Reviews Genetics 11 (7): 459–63.Google Scholar
Proekt, A., Banavar, J. R., Maritan, A., and Pfaff, D. W.. 2012. “Scale Invariance in the Dynamics of Spontaneous Behavior.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 109 (26): 10564–99.Google Scholar
Qureshi, I. A., and Mehler, M. F.. 2012. “Emerging Roles of Non-coding RNAs in Brain Evolution, Development, Plasticity and Disease.” Nature Reviews Neuroscience 13 (8): 528–41.Google Scholar
Redon, R., Ishikawa, S., Fitch, K. R., Feuk, L., Perry, G. H., and Andrews, T. D.. 2006. “Global Variation in Copy Number in the Human Genome.” Nature 444: 444–54.Google Scholar
Rehen, S. K. 2005. “Constitutional Aneuploidy in the Normal Human Brain.” Journal of Neuroscience 25: 2176–80.Google Scholar
Schwanhäusser, B., Busse, D., Li, N., Dittmar, G., Schuchhardt, J., Wolf, J., Chen, W., and Selbach, M.. 2011. “Global Quantification of Mammalian Gene Expression Control.” Nature 473 (7347): 337–42.Google Scholar
Sciamanna, I., Vitullo, P., Curatolo, A., and Spadafora, C.. 2009. “Retrotransposons, Reverse Transcriptase and the Genesis of New Genetic Information.” Gene 448 (2): 180–86.Google Scholar
Shew, W. L., and Plenz, D.. 2012. “The Functional Benefits of Criticality in the Cortex.” Neuroscientist 19 (1): 88–100.Google Scholar
Singer, T., McConnell, M. J., Marchetto, M. C. N., Coufal, N. G., and Gage, F. H.. 2010. “LINE-1 Retrotransposons: Mediators of Somatic Variation in Neuronal Genomes?” Trends in Neurosciences 33 (8): 345–54.Google Scholar
Skinner, Michael K. 2011. “Role of Epigenetics in Developmental Biology and Transgenerational Inheritance.” Birth Defects Research Part C: Embryo Today: Reviews 93 (1): 51–55. “Study Suggests Link between Oral Health and Ethnicity.” 2007. British Dentistry Journal 202 (9): 514–15.Google Scholar
Theodore, W. H., Spencer, S. S., Wiebe, S., Langfitt, J. T., Ali, A., Shafer, P. O., Berg, A. T., and Vickrey, B. G.. 2006. “Epilepsy in North America: A Report Prepared under the Auspices of the Global Campaign against Epilepsy, the International Bureau for Epilepsy, the International League against Epilepsy, and the World Health Organization.” Epilepsia 47 (10): 1700–22.Google Scholar
Thomas, D. C., and Witte, J. S.. 2002. “Point: Population Stratification: A Problem for Case-Control Studies of Candidate-Gene Associations?” Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention 11 (6): 505–12.Google Scholar
Tom, W. S. 1998. “A Review of Church Attendance Measures.” American Sociological Review 63 (1): 131–36.Google Scholar
U.S. Census Bureau. 2012. “Voting-Age Population, Percent Reporting Registered, and Voted. 2012.” http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s0399.pdf.Google Scholar
van den Oord, E. J. C. G., Verhulst, F. C., and Boomsma, D. I.. 1996. “A Genetic Study of Maternal and Paternal Ratings of Problem Behaviors in 3-year-old Twins.” Journal of Abnormal Psychology 105 (3): 349–57.Google Scholar
Vitullo, P., Sciamanna, I., Baiocchi, M., Sinibaldi-Vallebona, P., and Spadafora, C.. 2012. “LINE-1 Retrotransposon Copies Are Amplified during Murine Early Embryo Development.” Molecular Reproduction and Development 79 (2): 118–27.Google Scholar
West-Eberhard, M. J. 2003. Developmental Plasticity and Evolution. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Westra, J. W., Rivera, R. R., Bushman, D. M., Yung, Y. C., Peterson, S. E., Barral, S., and Chun, J.. 2010. “Neuronal DNA Content Variation (DCV) with Regional and Individual Differences in the Human Brain.” Journal of Comparative Neurology 518 (19): 3981–4000.Google Scholar
Yashin, A. 2011. “Genetics of Exceptional Lifespan: Testing Mutation Accumulation Hypothesis of Aging Using GWAS” Rresented at Integrating Genetics and the Social Sciences conference, Boulder, CO.Google Scholar
Zhang, T. Y., and Meaney, M. J.. 2010. “Epigenetics and the Environmental Regulation of the Genome and Its Function.” Annual Review of Psychology 61 (1): 439–66.Google Scholar
Zwarts, L., Magwire, M. M., Carbone, M. A., Versteven, M., Herteleer, L., Anholt, R. R. H., Callaerts, P., and Mackay, T. F. C.. 2011. “Complex Genetic Architecture of Drosophila Aggressive Behavior.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 108 (41): 17070–75.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

CHARNEY and WILLIAM ENGLISH

Supplementary material

Download CHARNEY and WILLIAM ENGLISH(PDF)
PDF 85 KB
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.