Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: The Implication of Threat and Threat Perception on Political Activity

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Do individual differences alter the effects of the political environment on turnout? Specifically, does a genetic sensitivity to threat condition the way that exposure to political contention affects turnout? Recent work in the genopolitics literature suggests taht the answer is "yes" and that fundamental differences between us interact with our environmental exposures to affect our propensity to vote. However, previous work has not tested the specific ways through which exposure to contention effects turnout, due in part to the assumption that - once demographics, political preferences, and political interest levels have been controlled for - the environment should have a uniform effect on people's decision. Consequently, little work has been tested which individual differences might alter the effect of environmental influences on an individual's decision.This project will explore the relationship between political contention and turnout and will provide a political explanation for why genes have been shown to affect political outcomes. This study theorizes that individual differences in people's sensitivity to threat moderate the effects of living in a politically contentious environment. Competitive elections provide the opportunity for being exposed to contentious polictics. Some people may respond to the perceived threat with increase anxiety, while others are relatively unaffected. Differences in threat sensitivity and anxiety are in large part explained by biological differences, and therefore suggest that is is these same biological differences that predispose a person toward responding to political contention with increased anxiety. Furthermore, for these people, experiencing anxiety about politics will have the effect of suppressing their turnout.This theory is tested using a laboratory experiment that varies respondents' exposure to political contention and measures their emotions based on their physiological repsonse to the experimetn treatment. Data about genetic and psychological predispositions toward threat sensitivity have already been measured for the experimental sample, which will allow me to measure differences in response to the treatment based on differences in threat sensitivity.This research topic is extremely relevant in today's contentious poltical environment. Political polarization has intensified the consequences of people's emotional reactions to political disagreement, and it is important for political scientists to identify the causal mechanisms that relate political contention to political behavior.