Faculty note: Weinschenk co-authors paper on genes’ influence on voting behavior

Why do some people consider voting to be an important moral obligation while others brush it off? New research has found evidence that genes have a large influence on sense of civic duty. UW-Green Bay Assistant Prof. Aaron Weinschenk is the lead author. “Voting is one of the most basic ways of participating in a democracy,” Weinschenk says. “As political scientists, my co-author (Chris Dawes at NYU) and I think it is important to understand why some people to feel a strong obligation to vote in elections (and why others feel little obligation). Our paper takes a look at whether the sense of civic duty to vote is more deeply-rooted within people (potentially rooted in biological factors or personality traits—which are heritable) than previously thought.” See more on PsyPost — a psychology and neuroscience news website dedicated to reporting the latest research on human behavior, cognition and society.