Integrating classical and contemporary explanations of political participation

Mapping Political Trust and Involvement in the Personality Space - A Meta-Analysis and New Evidence

OBJECTIVE

Relations between the Big Five personality dispositions and individual differences in political trust and involvement in politics have been investigated in many studies. We aimed to systematically integrate these findings and further explore the correlations at different hierarchical levels of the Big Five and political trust and involvement.

METHOD

We conducted a meta-analysis of 43 publications (N₁ = 207,360 participants) and estimated latent correlations at different hierarchical levels using two additional samples (N₂ = 988 and N₃ = 795).

RESULTS

The meta-analysis revealed substantial correlations between involvement and openness (+), extraversion (+), and neuroticism (-), but only small correlations between trust and the Big Five. We also found a substantial amount of inconsistency in findings across studies. Our additional analyses showed that (a) correlations with the Big Five were larger for higher-order factors of general political trust (as opposed to subdimensions such as trust in politicians) and general political involvement (as opposed to subdimensions such as political interest) and (b) correlational patterns within each Big Five domain differed across facets.

CONCLUSION

Our analyses indicate that political involvement is more strongly linked to the Big Five than political trust. We discuss the theoretical and empirical relevance of hierarchical constructs.

On the genetic and environmental sources of social and political participation in adolescence and early adulthood

Political participation (POP), social participation (SOP), and political interest (PI) are important indicators of social status and social inequality. Previous studies on related trait differences yielded genetic and environmental contributions. However, focusing on adult samples, classical twin designs, and convenience samples often restricts parameter estimation and generalizability, and limits the understanding of age differences. We investigated sources of variance in POP, SOP, and PI in late adolescence and early adulthood with an extended twin family design (ETFD). We analyzed data from over 2,000 representative German twin families. Individual environments not shared by family members reflected the major source of variance for all variables, but genetic influences were also pronounced. Genetic effects were mostly higher for young adults, whereas effects of twins' shared environment were significant in adolescence. Our study deepens the understanding of the interplay between genetic and environmental factors in shaping differences in young persons' integration in society.

Is Political Activism on Social Media an initiator of Psychological Stress?

Objective:

To find out the association of psychological stress with political activism on social networking sites (SNS) in adults. To find association of psychological stress and political activism with age, gender and occupational status.

Methods:

A descriptive cross-sectional study of 8 months (Aug 2014 to March 2015) was conducted on young adults between age group of 20-40 years of different universities of Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Closed ended standardized questionnaires (i.e. Cohen Perceived Stress-10) were distributed via non-probability convenient sampling among a total sample size of 237. Sample size was calculated using WHO sample size calculator and data was analyzed in STATA version 12.

Results:

The mean age of participants was 21.06±1.425 years. Out of the 237 participants, 150 (63.3%) were males and 87 (36.7%) females. Regarding their occupation, 13 (51.9%) were military cadets, 8 (3.4%) were consultant, 47 (19.8%) medical officer, 3 (1.3%) PG students and 56 (23.6%) MBBS students. Significant association of occupation was established with both political activism and psychological stress (p=0.4 and p=0.002 respectively). Among 237 individuals, 91 (38.4%) were stressed out and 146 (61.6%) were not. Among whole sample, political activists on SNS were found to be 23 (9.7%). Out of these 23 individuals who were politically active, 15 (65.2%) were stressed out and 8 (34.7%) were not. A significant association between stress and political activism was established (p=0.005).

Conclusion:

Political activism via social networking sites is playing significant role on adult person’s mental health in terms of stress among different occupation.

The genetics of politics: discovery, challenges, and progress

For the greater part of human history, political behaviors, values, preferences, and institutions have been viewed as socially determined. Discoveries during the 1970s that identified genetic influences on political orientations remained unaddressed. However, over the past decade, an unprecedented amount of scholarship utilizing genetic models to expand the understanding of political traits has emerged. Here, we review the 'genetics of politics', focusing on the topics that have received the most attention: attitudes, ideologies, and pro-social political traits, including voting behavior and participation. The emergence of this research has sparked a broad paradigm shift in the study of political behaviors toward the inclusion of biological influences and recognition of the mutual co-dependence between genes and environment in forming political behaviors.