Genetic Epidemiology, Translational Neurogenomics, Psychiatric Genetics and Statistical Genetics Laboratories investigate the pattern of disease in families, particularly identical and non-identical twins, to assess the relative importance of genes and environment in a variety of important health problems.
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PMID
17221311
TITLE
The genetics of voting: an Australian twin study.
ABSTRACT
Previously we and others have shown evidence for genetic influences on political attitudes and sociodemographic indicators (Martin 1987; Posner et al. 1996; Truett et al. 1992; Eaves et al. 1999). However, the nature of the relationship between political attitudes, social indictors and voting behavior has not been investigated. While heritability estimates for social and political attitudes have been reported in previous research, the heritability for vote choice has not. Furthermore, if vote choice is heritable, it is unclear whether the heritable component can be accounted for through the genetic influence on related social and political traits, or if there exists a unique genetic component specific to voting behavior. In mailed surveys of adult Australian twins, we asked respondents to indicate their usual voting preference as well as attitudes on contemporary individual political items. When vote choice was dichotomized as Labor versus Conservative, twin correlations were r (mz) = 0.81 (1,661 pairs), and r (dz) = 0.69 (1,727 pairs) consistent with modest genetic influence (a (2) = 0.24). However, multivariate genetic analysis showed no unique genetic contribution to voting preference; rather, the genetic influence in vote choice could be explained by shared genetic influences in perceived social class, church attendance and certain key political attitude items.
DATE PUBLISHED
2007 May
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
received 2006/08/03
accepted 2006/11/30
pubmed 2007/01/16 09:00
medline 2007/09/19 09:00
entrez 2007/01/16 09:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Hatemi PK Hatemi Peter K PK Genetic Epidemiology Unit, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, QLD, Australia. Peter.Hatemi@qimr.edu.au
Medland SE Medland Sarah E SE
Morley KI Morley Katherine I KI
Heath AC Heath Andrew C AC
Martin NG Martin Nicholas G NG
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 37
ISSUE: 3
TITLE: Behavior genetics
ISOABBREVIATION: Behav Genet
YEAR: 2007
MONTH: May
DAY:
MEDLINEDATE:
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Print
ISSN: 0001-8244
ISSNTYPE: Print
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: Behav Genet
COUNTRY: United States
ISSNLINKING: 0001-8244
NLMUNIQUEID: 0251711
PUBLICATION TYPE
PUBLICATIONTYPE TEXT
Journal Article
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Twin Study
COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS
GRANTS
GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
MESH HEADINGS
DESCRIPTORNAME QUALIFIERNAME
Adult
Attitude
Australia
Cohort Studies
Data Collection
Health Status
Humans
Life Style
Politics
Registries
Social Behavior
Social Class
Socioeconomic Factors
Surveys and Questionnaires
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
OTHER ID's