PPA 691 Policy Analysis

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PPA 691 Policy Analysis

• Lecture 3b Genetics, Political Orientation, and
  Problem Structuring

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Source

• John R. Alford, Carolyn L. Funk, and John R.
  Hibbing.
• Are political orientations genetically
  transmitted?
• American Political Science Review, 99 (May),
  153-168.

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Attitude Formation

• Traditional literature attitudes are a
  combination of longstanding predispositions and
  more recent off-the-top-of-the-head
  considerations.
• Predispositions are believed to be a distillation
  of a persons lifetime experiences, including
  childhood socialization and direct involvement
  with the raw ingredients of policy issues.

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Attitude Formation

• Most traditional research focused on relative
  influences of early childhood socialization
  versus adult socialization.
• Absent from the discussion is the possibility
  that certain attitudes and behaviors might be
  partially attributable to genetic factors.

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Genetics and Attitudes

• But, what physical process would allow a genetic
  allele to shape a political attitude?
• Clearly, a specific gene generally cannot cause a
  specific behavior.
• However, genetics is interactive. It makes
  individuals more sensitive to the external
  factors in their environment.

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Heritability Theory

• Comparison of monozygotic and dizygotic twins.
  Perfect natural experiment.
• Monozygotic (identical) twins share 100 of their
  DNA. Dizygotic twins share 50. Must assume
  that environment affects the two types of twins
  equally.

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Heritability Theory

• Influences of an individual trait are divided
  thusly
• H (heredity) E (environment).
• E can be divided between shared environment and
  unique environment.
• Statistically (controlling for parental traits
  and assortative mating), it is possible to
  partition attitude variance on all three factors.

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Predictions from Behavioral Genetics

• Political attitudes are heritable.
• Attitudes more central to core personality traits
  are more heritable than attitudes that are less
  central.
• Example Openness is often cited as a central
  personality trait, and is clearly relevant to
  political attitudes.

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Methods

• Wilson-Patterson attitude inventory.
• 28 items school prayer, property tax, Moral
  Majority, capitalism, astrology, the draft,
  pacifism, unions, Republicans, socialism, foreign
  aid, X-rated movies, immigration, womens
  liberation, death penalty, censorship, living
  together, military drill, gay rights,
  segregation, busing, nuclear power, Democrats,
  divorce, abortion, modern art, federal housing,
  liberals.

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Methods

• Formulas for decomposition of effects.
• Heritability 2(MZ DZ) correlations.
• Shared Env. (2DZ)-MZ correlations.
• Unique Env. 1 MZ correlations.
• Model assumes that parents correlate at zero. If
  parental attitudes are shared, shared environment
  will be overstated and inherited characteristics
  will be understated. Must control for parental
  attitudes.

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Heritability of Political Attitudes

• Across the 28 items, heritability varies from .18
  to .41.
• On a scale of all 28 items, heritability is .32,
  shared is .16, and unshared is .53.
• Controlling for assortative mating and shared
  parental attitudes, heritability is .53, shared
  is .11, and unshared is .36.

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Heritability of Political Attitudes

• Other less central values.
• Educational attainment
• H .40 SE .46 UE .14.
• Party identification
• H .14 SE .41 UE .45.
• Results produce similar coefficients in Australia.

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Implications

• Two probable orientations
• Absolutist
• Suspicion of out-groups.
• Desire for in-group conformity and strong
  leadership.
• Desire for clear, unbending moral and behavioral
  codes (strict constructionists).
• Fondness for swift and severe punishments for
  violations of the code (death penalty).
• A fondness for systemization (procedural due
  process).
• A willingness to tolerate inequality (opposition
  to redistributive policies).
• An inherently pessimistic view of human nature
  (Hobbesian).

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Implications

• Contextualist.
• Relatively tolerant attitude toward out-groups.
• A desire to take a more context-dependent rather
  rule-based approach to proper behavior
  (substantive due process).
• An inherently optimistic view of human nature
  (people should get the benefit of the doubt).
• A distaste for preset punishments (mitigating
  circumstances).
• A preference for group togetherness, but not
  unity.
• Suspicion of hierarchy, certainty, and strong
  leadership.
• An aversion to inequality.
• Greater empathetic tendencies (rehabilitate,
  dont punish).

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Implications

• Precursor to basic cleavages in society.
• Politics (conservative-liberal).
• Religion (fundamentalist secular humanist).
• Law (procedural versus substantive due process).
• Education (phonics versus whole language).
• Art (traditional form-based realism versus modern
  free-from impressionism).
• Sports (football/frisbee).
• Medicine (traditional AMA/wholistic).
• Morality (enduring standards/situational ethics).
• Scientific inquiry (formal/empirical).

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Implications

• All the vexing dichotomies are based on a
  fundamental genetic divide.
• Of course, most people have shades of these
  divisions.
• Plus, 36 of predispositions are shaped by unique
  environmental influences.

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Policy Analysis Implications

• Central to problem definition.
• Competing definitions of ill-structured problems.
• Ill-structured problems are by definition central
  to the core values of the stakeholders, making
  compromise and shared definitions difficult.
• Conclusion 50 heritability makes problem
  structuring extraordinarily difficult but, the
  36 unique environment gives hope.