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