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

个人差异是否会改变政治环境对投票率的影响？具体地说，对威胁的遗传敏感性是否会影响政治斗争对投票率的影响？基因政治学文献的最新研究表明，答案是肯定的，我们之间的根本差异与我们所处的环境相互作用，从而影响我们的投票倾向。然而，以前的工作没有测试暴露于竞争效应投票的具体方式，部分原因是假设-一旦人口统计、政治偏好和政治利益水平被控制-环境应该对人们的决定产生一致的影响。因此，很少有人测试哪些个体差异可能会改变环境影响个人决策的效果。这个项目将探索政治争论和投票率之间的关系，并将为为什么基因被证明影响政治结果提供政治解释。这项研究的理论是，人们对威胁的敏感度的个体差异会减缓生活在政治争议环境中的影响。竞争激烈的选举提供了接触有争议的政策的机会。一些人可能会对感知到的威胁做出更多焦虑的反应，而另一些人则相对不受影响。威胁敏感度和焦虑感的差异在很大程度上是由生物差异来解释的，因此表明正是这些相同的生物差异使一个人倾向于以更高的焦虑来应对政治争论。此外，对于这些人来说，经历政治焦虑会抑制他们的投票率。这一理论通过实验室实验进行了验证，该实验改变了受访者对政治争论的暴露程度，并根据他们对实验治疗的生理反应来衡量他们的情绪。对于实验样本，已经测量了关于威胁敏感性的遗传和心理倾向的数据，这将使我能够基于威胁敏感性的差异来衡量治疗的差异。这一研究主题在当今争论不休的政治环境中非常相关。政治两极分化加剧了人们对政治分歧的情绪反应的后果，对政治学家来说，重要的是确定将政治争论与政治行为联系起来的因果机制。

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.