The Genetic Basis of Social Networks and Civic Engagement

公民参与是一种倾向于参与社区或政治组织以及旨在实现有利于某一群体的结果的活动。直到最近，大多数学者都认为个人学习参与是环境因素的结果。例如，孩子们可能会从父母那里了解到，投票是他们的责任；碰巧出生在高收入家庭的人可能会获得更多的教育，可能会有更多的时间和资源用于公民参与；政府的规定可能会因地而异，从而使参与公民生活变得更容易或更难。然而，尽管几乎一心一意地强调环境因素，但我们有理由相信，公民参与也可能有遗传原因。在早期人类社会中，S个人参加集体活动的能力可能会对其生存能力产生影响。这表明，我们如何与朋友、邻居和大家庭成员建立社会关系，以及我们参与集体活动的意愿可能存在遗传基础。在这个项目中，我们使用了国家青少年健康纵向研究(AddHealth)的数据来了解基因可能如何影响社会关系和我们参与社区的意愿。第一个目标是研究同卵双胞胎和异卵双胞胎的差异，以了解基因是否在投票、公民活动和社区参与中发挥广泛作用。对与社会行为相关的特定基因的影响进行了研究，以确定它们是否会影响公民参与。第二个目标是研究基因是否会影响我们与朋友、家人和邻居形成的社交网络。这项研究使用同卵双胞胎和异卵双胞胎来研究遗传性和特定基因数据的广泛作用，试图分离我们观察到的特定影响。第三个目标是了解基因在多大程度上影响公民参与，因为它们影响我们的社会关系。社会关系可以影响对社区或政治组织和活动的参与，因为它们创造了参与的机会。例如，更受欢迎的人可能会被更频繁地要求加入团体。因此，如果基因同时影响公民参与和社会网络，那么基因可能首先影响我们的社会生活，进而影响我们参与公民生活的意愿。这项工作应该会对美国等民主国家的政治生活产生重大而广泛的影响。特别是，这项研究可能会改变我们对父母和其他政治社会化参与者在鼓励(或阻止)公民参与方面所扮演的角色的看法。公民和政治领袖经常对参与度下降表示担忧，从投票率下降到参与公民和政治团体的减少，再到“独自打保龄球”的频率增加。了解基因和社交网络如何结合在一起影响我们的行为，可能有助于我们设计有助于提高公民参与度的补救措施。

Civic engagement is the tendency to become involved with community or political organizations and activities aimed at achieving an outcome that benefits a group. Until recently, most scholars thought that individuals learn to participate as a result of environmental factors. For example, children may learn from their parents that it is their duty to vote; people who happen to be born into high income families may acquire more education and may have more time and resources to devote to civic participation; and government rules may differ from place to place, making it easier or harder to become involved in civic life. However, in spite of this almost single-minded emphasis on environmental factors, there are reasons to believe that civic engagement may also have genetic causes. In early human societies, an individual''s capacity to participate in group activities probably had an effect on the capacity to survive hardship. This suggests there may be a genetic basis to how we form social connections with our friends, neighbors, and members of our extended family as well as our willingness to participate in group activities.In this project, data is used from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (AddHealth) to understand how genes might affect social ties and our willingness to get involved in our communities. The first aim is to study differences in identical and fraternal twins in order to learn whether genes play a broad role in voting, civic activities, and community involvement. The effects of specific genes that have been linked to social behavior are examined to see whether or not they influence civic engagement. The second aim is to see whether or not genes affect the kinds of social networks we form with friends, family, and neighbors. The study uses identical and fraternal twins to study the broad role of heritability and data on specific genes to try to isolate the specific effects we observe. The third aim is to learn the extent to which genes influence civic engagement because they influence our social relationships. Social ties can affect participation in community or political organizations and activities because they create opportunities to become involved. For example, people who are more popular may be asked more often to join groups. Thus, if genes influence both civic engagement and social networks, it may be that genes first affect our social life, which in turn affects how willing we are to participate in civic life.This work should have a significant broader impact for political life in democracies, like the United States. In particular, the research could change how we think about the role of parents and other agents of political socialization in encouraging (or discouraging) civic engagement. Civic and political leaders frequently express concern about declining levels of engagement, from lower voter turnout to reduced participation in civic and political groups to the increased frequency of "bowling alone." Understanding how genes and social networks combine to affect our behavior may help us to design remedies that help increase civic engagement.