Are Political Orientations Genetically Transmitted? on JSTOR

The American Political Science Review

Description: The American Political Science Review (APSR) is the longest running publication of the American Political Science Association (APSA). APSR, first published in November 1906 and appearing quarterly, is the preeminent political science journal in the United States and internationally. APSR features research from all fields of political science and contains an extensive book review section of the discipline. In its earlier days, APSR also covered the personal and personnel items of the profession as had its predecessor, the Proceedings of the APSA.

Coverage: 1906-2014 (Vol. 1, No. 1 - Vol. 108, No. 4)

Moving Wall: 3 years (What is the moving wall?)

The "moving wall" represents the time period between the last issue available in JSTOR and the most recently published issue of a journal. Moving walls are generally represented in years. In rare instances, a publisher has elected to have a "zero" moving wall, so their current issues are available in JSTOR shortly after publication.
Note: In calculating the moving wall, the current year is not counted.
For example, if the current year is 2008 and a journal has a 5 year moving wall, articles from the year 2002 are available.

Terms Related to the Moving Wall: Fixed walls: Journals with no new volumes being added to the archive.; Absorbed: Journals that are combined with another title.; Complete: Journals that are no longer published or that have been combined with another title.

ISSN: 00030554

EISSN: 15375943

Subjects: Political Science, American Studies, Social Sciences, Area Studies

Collections: Arts & Sciences I Collection, JSTOR Essential Collection

Abstract

We test the possibility that political attitudes and behaviors are the result of both environmental and genetic factors. Employing standard methodological approaches in behavioral genetics-specifically, comparisons of the differential correlations of the attitudes of monozygotic twins and dizygotic twins-we analyze data drawn from a large sample of twins in the United States, supplemented with findings from twins in Australia. The results indicate that genetics plays an important role in shaping political attitudes and ideologies but a more modest role in forming party identification; as such, they call for finer distinctions in theorizing about the sources of political attitudes. We conclude by urging political scientists to incorporate genetic influences, specifically interactions between genetic heritability and social environment, into models of political attitude formation.

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Are Political Orientations Genetically Transmitted?

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Abstract