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
24569950
TITLE
Genetic influences on political ideologies: twin analyses of 19 measures of political ideologies from five democracies and genome-wide findings from three populations.
ABSTRACT
Almost 40 years ago, evidence from large studies of adult twins and their relatives suggested that between 30 and 60% of the variance in social and political attitudes could be explained by genetic influences. However, these findings have not been widely accepted or incorporated into the dominant paradigms that explain the etiology of political ideology. This has been attributed in part to measurement and sample limitations, as well the relative absence of molecular genetic studies. Here we present results from original analyses of a combined sample of over 12,000 twins pairs, ascertained from nine different studies conducted in five democracies, sampled over the course of four decades. We provide evidence that genetic factors play a role in the formation of political ideology, regardless of how ideology is measured, the era, or the population sampled. The only exception is a question that explicitly uses the phrase "Left-Right". We then present results from one of the first genome-wide association studies on political ideology using data from three samples: a 1990 Australian sample involving 6,894 individuals from 3,516 families; a 2008 Australian sample of 1,160 related individuals from 635 families and a 2010 Swedish sample involving 3,334 individuals from 2,607 families. No polymorphisms reached genome-wide significance in the meta-analysis. The combined evidence suggests that political ideology constitutes a fundamental aspect of one's genetically informed psychological disposition, but as Fisher proposed long ago, genetic influences on complex traits will be composed of thousands of markers of very small effects and it will require extremely large samples to have enough power in order to identify specific polymorphisms related to complex social traits.
DATE PUBLISHED
2014 May
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
received 2013/06/17
accepted 2014/02/07
entrez 2014/02/27 06:00
pubmed 2014/02/27 06:00
medline 2015/04/07 06:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Hatemi PK Hatemi Peter K PK Genetic Epidemiology, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, Australia, phatemi@gmail.com.
Medland SE Medland Sarah E SE
Klemmensen R Klemmensen Robert R
Oskarsson S Oskarsson Sven S
Littvay L Littvay Levente L
Dawes CT Dawes Christopher T CT
Verhulst B Verhulst Brad B
McDermott R McDermott Rose R
Nørgaard AS Nørgaard Asbjørn Sonne AS
Klofstad CA Klofstad Casey A CA
Christensen K Christensen Kaare K
Johannesson M Johannesson Magnus M
Magnusson PK Magnusson Patrik K E PK
Eaves LJ Eaves Lindon J LJ
Martin NG Martin Nicholas G NG
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 44
ISSUE: 3
TITLE: Behavior genetics
ISOABBREVIATION: Behav Genet
YEAR: 2014
MONTH: May
DAY:
MEDLINEDATE:
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Internet
ISSN: 1573-3297
ISSNTYPE: Electronic
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: Behav Genet
COUNTRY: United States
ISSNLINKING: 0001-8244
NLMUNIQUEID: 0251711
PUBLICATION TYPE
PUBLICATIONTYPE TEXT
Journal Article
Meta-Analysis
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Twin Study
COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS
REFTYPE REFSOURCE REFPMID NOTE
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GRANTID AGENCY COUNTRY
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GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
MESH HEADINGS
DESCRIPTORNAME QUALIFIERNAME
Genome-Wide Association Study
Humans
Personality genetics
Politics genetics
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
OTHER ID's
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