Group Consciousness and Political Participation

Miller, Arthur H.; Gurin, Patricia; Gurin, Gerald; Маланчук, Оксана

doi:10.2307/2110816

Cited by 547 publications

(434 citation statements)

References 13 publications

(15 reference statements)

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“…These models include: demographic factors like age (Strate et al 1989), gender , race (Verba, Schlozman, and Brady 1993), marital status (Stoker and Jennings 1995), education (Leighley and Nagler 1992b), income (Leighley and Nagler 1992a), occupational prestige Prewitt 1969a, 1969b), and home ownership (Highton and Wolfinger 2001); attitudinal and behavioral factors like interest in the campaign , access to political information (DiMaggio, Hargittai, and Neuman 2001), general political knowledge (Galston 2001), strength of partisanship (Huckfeldt and Sprague 1992), feelings of civic duty (Blais and Young 1999), internal and external efficacy (Finkel 1985), political trust (Hetherington 1999), church attendance (Cassel 1999), personal skill acquisition , humanitarianism (Jankowski 2007), altruism (Fowler 2006a), and patience (Fowler and Kam 2006); social factors like interpersonal communication (McLeod, Scheufele, and Moy 1999), social identification (Fowler and Kam 2007), group consciousness (Miller, Gurin, and Gurin 1981), socialization (Cho 1999), the status of neighbors (Huckfeldt 1979), political disagreement (Mutz 2002), and social capital (Lake and Huckfeldt 1998); and institutional factors (Jackman and Miller 1995) like closeness of the election (Shachar and Nalebuff 1999), contact from political organizations (Wielhouwer and Lockerbie 1994), campaigns (Ansolabehere and Gerber 1994), civic education (Somit et al 1958), polling locations (Gimpel and Schuknecht 2003), and barriers to registration (Rosenstone and Wolfinger 1978). However...…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Two Genes Predict Voter Turnout

Fowler

Dawes

2008

The Journal of Politics

213

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Fowler, Baker, and Dawes (2008) recently showed in two independent studies of twins that voter turnout has very high heritability. Here we investigate two specific genes that may contribute to variation in voting behavior. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we show that individuals with a polymorphism of the MAOA gene are significantly more likely to have voted in the 2004 presidential election. We also find evidence that an association between a polymorphism of the 5HTT gene and voter turnout is moderated by religious attendance. These are the first results ever to link specific genes to political behavior. Social scientists have shown that basic political attitudes like liberalism and conservatism are likely to be heritable (Alford, Funk, and Hibbing 2005, Hatemi et al. 2007). While the choice of a particular candidate or party does not appear to be heritable, a significant proportion of the variation in the decision to participate in politics can be attributed to genetic factors. Fowler, Baker, and Dawes (2008) recently studied the voting behavior of two populations of twins and showed that heritability accounted for 53% of the variation in validated turnout of those living in Los Angeles county and 72% of the self-reported turnout in a nationally representative sample of young adults. They also showed that heritability accounted for 60% of the variation in a general index of political participation, including contributing to campaigns, running for office, volunteering for political organizations, and attending protests. These results were the first to suggest that humans exhibit inherent variability in their willingness to participate in politics.However, these initial results based on twin studies beg the question ''which genes?'' The natural place to start the search for such genes is among those that have already been shown to account for variation in social behavior. And among these, MAOA and 5HTT are prime candidates. These two genes transcribe neurochemicals that exert a strong influence on the serotonin system in parts of the brain that regulate fear, trust, and social interaction (Bertolino et al. 2005; Eisenberger et al. 2007;Hariri et al. 2002;Hariri et al. 2005;Heinz et al. 2005;Meyer-Lindenberg et al. 2006). MAOA and 5HTT have been studied for more than 20 years, and much is known about the way different versions of their genes regulate transcription, metabolism, and signal transfers between neurons, all of which have an effect on social interactions (Craig 2007). In particular, the less transcriptionally efficient alleles of these genes have been associated with a variety of antisocial behaviors (Rhee and Waldman 2002).In this article, we hypothesize that people with more transcriptionally efficient alleles of the MAOA and 5HTT genes are more likely to vote. An association between a gene and political behavior may also be moderated by environmental factors. This phenomenon is known as a gene-environment (GxE) interaction (Shanahan and Hofer 2005). We therefore...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Two Genes Predict Voter Turnout

Fowler

Dawes

2008

The Journal of Politics

213

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“…A number of researchers have pointed to the role of "group consciousness". in increasing activity (Miller et al, 1981;Verba and Nie, 1972) . Others find effects associated with membership in particular cleavage -12 -groups, such as different religions, in the Netherlands, or class/religious groupings, in Austria (Verba, Nie, and Kirn, 1978) .…”

Section: Table L Aboo T Herementioning

confidence: 97%

“…In addition, a number of studies show that membership and activity in organizations increase activity (Lipset, 1960;Nie, Powell, and Prewitt, 1969;Verba and Nie, 1972) although this effect likely reflects the learning of transferable skills and attitudes. Group effects, especially those based on the political role of the group, may help explain political mobilization of ethnic minorities (Welch, 1977;Pavlik, 1976;Miller et al, 1981;Brown, Jackson, and Bowman, 1982;Jackson, 1987) .…”

Section: Table L Aboo T Herementioning

confidence: 99%

Political participation of ethnic minorities in the 1980s

1989

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“…We go beyond Ellis and Stimson to consider the effects of political identities (Conover 1984, Miller et al 1981, Popp and Rudolph 2011 exposure to different media outlets and generational socialization.…”

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confidence: 99%

Ideological Labels in America

2014

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This paper extends Ellis and Stimson's (2012) study of the operational-symbolic paradox using issue-level measures of ideological incongruence based on respondent positions and symbolic labels for these positions across 14 issues. Like Ellis and Stimson, we find that substantial numbers-over 30 percent-of Americans experience conflicted conservatism. Our issue-level data reveal, furthermore, that conflicted conservatism is most common on the issues of education and welfare spending. In addition, we also find that 20 percent of Americans exhibit conflicted liberalism. We then replicate Ellis and Stimson's finding that conflicted conservatism is associated with low sophistication and religiosity, but also find that it is associated with being socialized in a post-1960s generation and using Fox News as a main news source. Finally, we show the important role played by identities, with both conflicted conservatism and conflicted liberalism linked with partisan and ideological identities, and conflicted liberalism additionally associated with ethnic identities.

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Group Consciousness and Political Participation

Cited by 547 publications

References 13 publications

Two Genes Predict Voter Turnout

Two Genes Predict Voter Turnout

Political participation of ethnic minorities in the 1980s

Ideological Labels in America

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