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Are Political Orientations Genetically Transmitted?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2005

JOHN R. ALFORD ,
CAROLYN L. FUNK  and
JOHN R. HIBBING
JOHN R. ALFORD
Affiliation:
Rice University
CAROLYN L. FUNK
Affiliation:
Virginia Commonwealth University
JOHN R. HIBBING
Affiliation:
University of Nebraska
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Abstract

We test the possibility that political attitudes and behaviors are the result of both environmental and genetic factors. Employing standard methodological approaches in behavioral genetics—specifically, comparisons of the differential correlations of the attitudes of monozygotic twins and dizygotic twins—we analyze data drawn from a large sample of twins in the United States, supplemented with findings from twins in Australia. The results indicate that genetics plays an important role in shaping political attitudes and ideologies but a more modest role in forming party identification; as such, they call for finer distinctions in theorizing about the sources of political attitudes. We conclude by urging political scientists to incorporate genetic influences, specifically interactions between genetic heritability and social environment, into models of political attitude formation.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 99 , Issue 2 , May 2005 , pp. 153 - 167
Copyright
© 2005 by the American Political Science Association

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