Parental Income Moderates Genetic Influences on Political Interest

• In Event: The Psychology of Political Participation

Abstract

The political involvement of adolescents is characterized by a substantial socio-economic gradient already at a young age with enduring effects into adulthood. This inequality is often attributed to circumstances in the home children grow up in, particularly parental socio-economic background. While differences in parental income can have direct effects on political socialization, we propose that they can also influence children's genetic dispositions for developing political involvement. Concretely, we argue that low/high parental income creates a constraining/enhancing environment that decreases/increases the effect of genetic dispositions on political interest. Empirically, we use data from TwinLife, a German Twin Study to compare monozygotic and dizygotic twins in adolescence. ACE variance decomposition models show that 30 to 40 percent of the total variance in political interest can be attributed to genetic influences. A gene-environment interaction model shows, as expected, that this share is much lower among poor compared to rich families. Further investigations using family fixed-effects models among early adults support previous research and show no significant effect of income differences on political interest after controlling for family background and genetic influences. Our study suggests that the income gap in participation cannot be fully understood without accounting for life-cycle processes and genetic background.

Authors

• Paul Marx, University of Bonn

• Sebastian Jungkunz, University of Bamberg