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New evidence on the link between genes, psychological traits, and political engagement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2019

Aaron C. Weinschenk ,
Christopher T. Dawes ,
Christian Kandler ,
Edward Bell  and
Rainer Riemann
Aaron C. Weinschenk*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
Christopher T. Dawes
Affiliation:
Wilf Family Department of Politics, New York University
Christian Kandler
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Bremen
Edward Bell
Affiliation:
School of Behavioural & Social Sciences (Sociology), Brescia University College at Western University
Rainer Riemann
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Bielefeld University
*
Correspondence: Aaron C. Weinschenk, 2420 Nicolet Drive, Green Bay, WI 54311. Email: weinscha@uwgb.edu
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Abstract

We investigate the link between genes, psychological traits, and political engagement using a new data set containing information on a large sample of young German twins. The TwinLife Study enables us to examine the predominant model of personality, the Big Five framework, as well as traits that fall outside the Big Five, such as cognitive ability, providing a more comprehensive understanding of the underpinnings of political engagement. Our results support previous work showing genetic overlap between some psychological traits and political engagement. More specifically, we find that cognitive ability and openness to experience are correlated with political engagement and that common genes can explain most of the relationship between these psychological traits and political engagement. Relationships between genes, psychological traits, and political engagement exist even at a fairly young age, which is an important finding given that previous work has relied heavily on older samples to study the link between genes, psychological traits, and political engagement.

Keywords

Political engagementheritabilitytwinspersonalitycognitive ability
Type
Article
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , Spring 2019 , pp. 1 - 13
Copyright
© Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 2019 

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