ORCID Profile
0000-0001-6514-2614
Current Organisation
Pennsylvania State University
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 02-2009
DOI: 10.1375/TWIN.12.1.8
Abstract: The classical twin design uses data on the variation of and covariation between monozygotic and dizygotic twins to infer underlying genetic and environmental causes of phenotypic variation in the population. By using data from additional relative classes, such as parents, extended twin family designs more comprehensively describe the causes of phenotypic variation. This article introduces an extension of previous extended twin family models, the Cascade model, which uses information on twins as well as their siblings, spouses, parents, and children to differentiate two genetic and six environmental sources of phenotypic variation. The Cascade also relaxes assumptions regarding mating and cultural transmission that existed in previous extended twin family designs. The estimation of additional parameters and relaxation of assumptions is potentially important, not only because it allows more fine-grained descriptions of the causes of phenotypic variation, but more importantly, because it can reduce the biases in parameter estimates that exist in earlier designs.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 2009
DOI: 10.1093/PAN/MPN016
Abstract: As political scientists begin to incorporate biological influences as explanatory factors in political behavior, the need to present a methodological road map for utilizing biometric genetic theory and twin data is apparent. The classical twin design (CTD) remains the most popular design for initial examinations of the source of variance among social and political behaviors, and a vast majority of advanced variance components models as well as some molecular analyses are extensions of the CTD. Thus, it is appropriate to begin a series of works with the CTD and its most common variants. The CTD has strong roots in biometrical genetic theory and provides estimates of the correlations between observed traits of monozygotic and dizygotic twins in terms of underlying genetic and environmental influences. The majority of these analyses utilize SEMs of observed covariances for both twin types to assess the relative importance of these “latent” factors.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 2009
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 2011
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 2011
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 24-01-2011
Abstract: Explanations for differences in political preferences between men and women continue to be debated, generating more heat than light in attempts to locate their source and potential influence. The reason for this confusion rests on the lack of conceptual clarity concerning the difference between sex, typically referring to biological differences, and gender, assumed to result from socialization, and the difference these constructs might elicit in political outcomes. Utilizing two gender scales, the authors find gender identity exerts an impact on voter preferences above and beyond sex. They also find that in idual differences in gender identity are not found to result from social influences but largely derive from unique experiences and innate disposition. The results have substantial implications for social scientists who theorize about and investigate sex and gender in studies of political attitudes and behaviors.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Date: 07-03-2018
DOI: 10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780190299323.013.44
Abstract: Social scientists most often seek to empirically validate something already observed. Genetics identifies the unobserved. It provides a starting point to identify developmental pathways to preferences and behaviors. Understanding differences in the genome can help identify why people who experience the same social environment physically perceive it differently and react to it differently. The introduction of evolutionary theory, combined with methods and approaches from genetics, genomics, epigenetics, and molecular biology, has substantially changed the way in which social scientists explore and understand the development and maintenance of political values and behaviors. This chapter reviews findings from recent empirical and theoretical studies that have explored how genetic factors account for some part of why people differ politically.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 21-05-2015
DOI: 10.1017/THG.2015.13
Abstract: Here we introduce the Genetic and Environmental Foundations of Political and Economic Behaviors: A Panel Study of Twins and Families (PIs Alford, Hatemi, Hibbing, Martin, and Smith). This study was designed to explore the genetic and environmental influences on social, economic, and political behaviors and attitudes. It involves identifying the psychological mechanisms that operate on these traits, the heritability of complex economic and political traits under varying conditions, and specific genetic correlates of attitudes and behaviors. In addition to describing the study, we conduct novel analyses on the data, estimating the heritability of two traits so far unexplored in the extant literature: Machiavellianism and Baron-Cohen's Empathizing Quotient.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 10-2008
Abstract: Lummaa et al. (2007) presented historical data collected from twins born in Finland between 1734 and 1888 which suggested that females ( N = 31) born as part of an opposite sex (OS) twin pair were 25% less likely to reproduce than female twins ( N = 35) born as part of a same sex (SS) pair. They hypothesized that this reduction in fitness was due to masculinization of the female fetus via prenatal effects of the hormones of a male fetus. Because such masculinization would presumably take place in modern populations as well, it would seem important to establish to what degree it does so, and if so, whether reproduction is affected. We therefore address the question of reproduction differences in in idual female twins from same-sex ( N = 1979) and opposite-sex ( N = 913) dizygotic pairs in studies carried out in Australia, the Netherlands, and the United States. In all three s les, there were no differences in the number of children or age of first pregnancies in women from same sex pairs compared to those from opposite sex pairs. Similarly, there were no differences in psychological femininity between women from pairs of the same or opposite sex.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 04-2011
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 26-02-2014
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 18-12-2008
Abstract: Utilizing quantitative genetic models, the authors examine the sources of party identification and the intensity of that identification. The results indicate genes exert little, if any, influence on party identification, directly or indirectly through covariates. However, we find that genes appear to play a pivotal role in shaping the strength of an in idual’s party identification. Together with recent examinations of political attitudes and vote choice, these findings begin to provide a more complete picture of the source of partisanship and the complex nature of the political phenotype.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 07-2009
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 09-2014
DOI: 10.1017/S0008423914000900
Abstract: Humans, despite the country they inhabit, the social structures they constitute, and the forms of governments they live under, universally possess political attitudes that is, those attitudes towards sexual norms, out-groups, resource allocation, cooperation and fairness. It has been proposed that this near universal manifestation across societies remains ingrained in the psychological architecture of humans because of human evolution. However, there is enormous variation in political attitudes within and across populations, and this variation is not merely a function of social differences but derives, in part, through neurobiological differences within human populations. Thus, there is great confusion on the difference between what has evolved as universal, and what is due to in idual variation. This confusion, results, in part on the lack of integration of the theoretical mechanisms that addresses how humans vary within evolutionarily adaptive universals. Here we seek to fill this lacuna by explicating how evolutionary biology and psychology account for the universal need for humans to have political attitudes while neurobiological differences account for variation within those evolved structures.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2010
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-06-2010
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-12-2009
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 18-06-2012
Abstract: A recent stream of influential research suggests that the inclusion of behavioral genetic models can further inform our understanding of political preferences and behaviors. But it has often remained unclear what these models mean, or how they might matter for the broader discourse in the political science literature. The initial wave of behavioral genetic research focused on foundational discovery, and has begun to outline the basic properties of genetic influence on political traits, while a second wave of research has begun to link genetic findings to broader aspects of political behaviors. In the introduction to this special issue, we explicate how genes operate, the most common forms of behavioral genetic analyses, and their recent applications toward political behaviors. In so doing, we discuss what these findings mean for political science, and describe how best to interpret them. We note potential limitations of behavioral genetic approaches and remain cautious against the overextension of such models. The five articles that follow strive to move beyond discovery and focus more on the integration of behavioral genetic models with mainstream theories of political behavior to analyze problems of interest to political scientists.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 13-01-2007
DOI: 10.1007/S10519-006-9138-8
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 in idual 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.
No related grants have been discovered for Peter Hatemi.