Beyond Nature vs. Nurture: gene-environment interaction and political behavior

Our understanding of the origins of differences in political behavior is rapidly evolving.

Drastic decreases in the cost of genotyping has opened up the black box of genetic effects on not just medical, but also psychological, social and political phenomena. Political participation and preferences are now understood to stem from both social and genetic factors.

It is also suspected that these complex social phenomena are highly liable to be affected by gene-environment interactions: that is, where a given genetic factor can have different consequences depending on the environment.

However, very little is known about either the specific genetic archictecture of political traits, or the extent to which genetic effects are moderated by environmental factors.

This project aims to ameliorate this gap by both a) performing the first large-scale genome-wide association study of voter turnout, and b) exploring how these molecular genetic effects vary by political culture, economic conditions and social environment.

This project will thus both make great leaps in moving political science into the genomic era, and more generally contribute to the understanding of the structure of gene-environment interactions for all social traits.