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.
