Aaron C. Weinschenk’s research while affiliated with University of Wisconsin–Green Bay and other places

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Publications (63)


Genetics and politics: trait foundations, technological advances, health, and privacy
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March 2025

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30 Reads

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Aaron Weinschenk

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Political psychologists examine individual differences and human universals in their understanding of psychological processes in political orientations, attitudes, and behaviors. Whether they study emotion, cognition, or personality, scholars assume states and traits have some basis in individual dispositions. The origin, formation, and development of these dispositions may come from genetic or environmental sources but much fewer political psychologists undertake these foundational studies. While most areas of political psychology have proliferated across our discipline, genetic studies have lagged behind. Access to genetic data and genetically-informed samples is limited, costly, and often proprietary, creating natural barriers for advancing this study. In addition, scholars may need to learn new methodologies in order to integrate genetic data into their own work. But as we argue below, genetic influences and understandings of politics are more than just twin studies and vital pieces of the puzzle to understanding the psychological underpinnings of political behavior. In this chapter, we explore five topics. First, we discuss the value of genetics for political science and how political science has contributed to understanding public attitudes regarding heritability. Second, we examine in more detail the use of twin and family models in political science, highlighting methods beyond estimating heritability for political traits, such as techniques that focus on covariation with other traits, longitudinal direction of causation models, and co-twin control designs. Third, we review the use of genome wide association studies in political science and examine the potential uses of polygenic indices in future studies. Fourth, we discuss how the regulation of genetic influences by epigenetic factors has been studied elsewhere in the social sciences and could be applied to political science research. Fifth, we explore how political psychologists could contribute to the study of public attitudes towards developments in the field of human genomics, such as genetic security and privacy attitudes, public opinion on personalized medicine and other use cases for genetics, and public responses to genetic ancestry testing.

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Baseline results. Note: PGIs for: (E)ducational (A)ttainment; (C)ognitive (P)erformance; (EX)traversion; (NE)uroticism; (RI)sk; (AD)venturousness; (MO)rning person; (S)elf(R)ated (H)ealth; (DEP)ression; (S)ubjective (W)ell(B)eing; physical (ACT)ivity. The polygenic indices are standardized within each sample and birth year (mean=0, s.d.=1). All models include controls for sex, birth-year dummies, interaction between sex and the birth-year dummies, sample fixed effects, and the first ten principal components of the genomic data. Standard errors, shown in parentheses, allow for clustering at the family level. The significance tests are adjusted for false discovery rate within each column using the Benjamini-Hochberg procedure. Filled circles indicate indicates significance at the 5% level. The number of observations differs across the four outcomes: 54,031 (1st order voting), 54,351 (2nd order voting), 7,966 (self-reported voting), and 14,389 (participation index). Complete coefficient estimates together with standard errors are reported in Table A.4 in the Appendix
Within-family results. Note: PGIs for: (C)ognitive (P)erformance; (EX)traversion; (NE)uroticism; (RI)sk; (AD)venturousness; (MO)rning person; (S)elf(R)ated (H)ealth; (DEP)ression; (S)ubjective (W)ell(B)eing; physical (ACT)ivity. The polygenic indices are standardized within each sample and birth year (mean=0, s.d.=1). Circles denote PGI effects from between-family models. Triangles denote PGI effects from family-fixed effects. All between-family models include controls for sex, birth-year dummies, interaction between sex and the birth-year dummies, sample fixed effects, and the first ten principal components of the genomic data. The within-family models include controls for sex and sample fixed effects. Standard errors, shown in parentheses, allow for clustering at the family level. The significance tests are adjusted for false discovery rate within each column using the Benjamini-Hochberg procedure. Filled circles/triangles indicate indicates significance at the 5% level. The number of observations differs across the four outcomes: 20,488 (1st order voting), 20,403 (2nd order voting), 1,660 (self-reported voting), and 4,206 (participation index). Complete coefficient estimates together with standard errors are reported in Table A.5 in the Appendix
The Genetics of Political Participation: Leveraging Polygenic Indices to Advance Political Behavior Research

February 2025

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42 Reads

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2 Citations

Political Behavior

Previous research has found that political traits have some degree of genetic basis, but researchers have had less success unpacking the relationship between genes and political behavior. We propose an approach for examining this relationship that can overcome many of the limitations of previous research: polygenic indices (PGIs). PGIs are DNA-based individual-level variables that capture the genetic propensity to exhibit a given trait. We begin by outlining how PGIs are derived, how they can be utilized in conventional regression-based research, and how results should be interpreted. We then provide proof of concept, using data on over 50,000 individuals in four samples from the U.S. and Sweden to show that PGIs for health and psychological traits significantly predict measures of political participation, even within families. We conclude by outlining several ideas and providing empirical examples for researchers who may be interested in building on the PGI approach.



Perceptions of Local Political Corruption

July 2024

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32 Reads

Political Research Quarterly

In this paper, we explore the roots of perceptions of local corruption in U.S. cities, using survey data collected from 39 cities during 40 different mayoral election campaigns. We examine the impact of the city-level corruption context alongside measures of political information, partisan and racial/ethnic representation in local government, evaluations of personal and policy satisfaction, and other individual-level attitudinal and demographic characteristics. We find that perceptions of local corruption are responsive to the local corruption context—though this relationship is heavily conditioned by political knowledge—satisfaction with local conditions, other attitudinal measures, and, to a lesser extent, co-ethnic representation in local government.


Is political anxiety different than general anxiety?

May 2024

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329 Reads

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2 Citations

Politics and the Life Sciences

Recently, there has been growing interest in the concept of political anxiety. One important question that remains unanswered is whether political anxiety is just a symptom of general anxiety—that those reporting anxiety tied to politics are the same individuals who would already score highly on measures of general anxiety. Using survey data collected in 2023 ( N = 436), we find that measures of political and generalized anxiety do not appear to be tapping into a single underlying construct. In addition, the systematic correlates of these measures identified by previous literature are not equivalent predictors of the different types of anxiety. Politics seems to be a source of apprehensiveness and worry that affects individuals who are not necessarily suffering from general anxiety.


Figure 1. Relationship between presidential vote share and probability of having a conflict election.
Logit models predicting whether school district had a conflict election (model 1) and whether a conflict candidate won (model 2)
Schoolhouse Rocked: Pandemic Politics and the Nationalization of School Board Elections

December 2023

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48 Reads

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7 Citations

State Politics & Policy Quarterly

We examine the influence of national politics and changing racial demographics on school board elections. We identify the districts where candidates campaigned on Critical Race Theory, COVID response, or parent control/transparency (what we call “conflict elections”) and examine two related questions. First, what characteristics define school districts that had elections involving these issues? Second, in the places that had conflict elections, how frequently did “conflict candidates” win, and what factors influenced their odds of winning? Utilizing a unique dataset of all school board elections in Wisconsin in 2022, we find that Republican presidential vote share is positively related to both the probability that a school district had a conflict election and that a conflict candidate won. We also find that in communities where the white population declined between 2010 and 2020, there was a higher likelihood that a conflict candidate won compared to communities where the size of the white population grew. Overall, our analysis confirms that school board elections are increasingly mirroring nationalized trends in other elections.


Competition in Urban Mayoral Election Study cities.
Relationship between objective measure of competition and expectations of “very close” outcome.
Relationship between spending margin and expected level of competition, conditioned by political knowledge.
Objective conditions, political knowledge, and perceptions of electoral competition in U.S. mayoral elections

October 2023

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23 Reads

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4 Citations

Objective This article investigates the extent to which perceptions of the competitive context of mayoral elections reflect actual levels of competition and how that relationship is shaped by political expertise. Methods We use a unique survey data set of more than 6000 respondents interviewed in 40 separate mayoral elections. Results In broad strokes, people living in competitive cities are more likely than others to predict competitive outcomes. However, in keeping with the knowledge gap hypothesis, the relationship between objective levels of competition and perceived levels of competition is much stronger among those with relatively high levels of political knowledge than those with low levels of political knowledge. Conclusions The connection between actual and perceived conditions does not hold evenly for all segments of society—the information‐rich respond to their political environment, while the information‐poor are relatively unmoved by that environment. This pattern of asymmetric information acquisition is a familiar one in American politics and provides further evidence of an important source of political inequality.



Difference of means tests, pre-and post-election measures
On pins and needles: anxiety, politics and the 2020 U.S. Presidential election

March 2023

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207 Reads

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9 Citations

Journal of Elections Public Opinion and Parties

Contemporary U.S. politics is characterized by a high degree of political polarization and conflict. Consequently, scholars have become increasingly interested in understanding how political factors and events impact different dimensions of health, such as anxiety. Using data from a nationally-representative, two-wave panel survey conducted before and after the 2020 U.S. presidential election, we develop a measure of political anxiety and examine how levels of political anxiety changed following the election. In general, we find that levels of political anxiety decreased following the presidential election. We then examine individual-level factors that influence post-election levels of political anxiety. Those who are highly politically engaged, interested in politics, and who score highly on negative emotionality felt more political anxiety than their counterparts after the election. Those who voted for Donald Trump, conservatives, and African Americans reported feeling less political anxiety than their counterparts following the election. Our findings regarding vote choice and ideology are somewhat surprising in light of previous research on the impact of electoral loss. We conclude with a discussion of what might be driving some of our counterintuitive results and provide ideas for future research.


Parental Transmission and the Importance of the (Noncausal) Effects of Education on Political Engagement: Missing the Forest for the Trees

November 2022

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24 Reads

Social Psychological and Personality Science

By most accounts, an important prerequisite for a well-functioning democracy is engaged citizens. A very prominent explanation of variation in political engagement suggests that parental transmission through socialization accounts for individual-level differences in political engagement. In this paper, we show, using a large Danish twin survey ( N = 2,071), that classic formulations of parental transmission theory can be supplemented by findings from the biopolitics literature, allowing us to disentangle when heritable factors are important and when socialization factors are important predictors of political engagement. We show that as the level of family politicization and consistency increases, the influence of genes decreases. We take this to imply that family socialization can compensate for (genetic) individual differences and foster increased political engagement. By only focusing on the “causal” effect of education, we are missing the forest for the trees.


Citations (48)


... Dawes et al. (2021) demonstrated that the educational attainment PGI was roughly on par with the predictive power of parental education and income. Ahlskog et al. (2022) also showed that PGIs for health and psychological traits also significantly predict measures of voter turnout as well as non-voting political participation. For example, they find that genetic indices for cognitive ability, self-rated health, physical activity, and subjective well-being are positively related to political engagement, while genetic indices for neuroticism and depression are negatively associated with political engagement. ...

Reference:

Genetics and politics: trait foundations, technological advances, health, and privacy
The Genetics of Political Participation: Leveraging Polygenic Indices to Advance Political Behavior Research

Political Behavior

... There is considerably less scholarly work investigating nationalization and elections below the state level. The most prominent studies focus on school board elections, where scholars find that large national donors from 2008 to 2013 played a significant role in determining school board elections in Los Angeles (CA), New Orleans (LA), Denver (CO), and Bridgeport (CT) (Reckhow et al. 2017) and recent national forces (like Critical Race Theory and COVID response) impacted school board elections in heavily Republican (Trump) areas in Wisconsin (Shah, Weinschenk, and Yiannias 2024). Research on nationalization and mayoral elections, by comparison, has been nonexistent. ...

Schoolhouse Rocked: Pandemic Politics and the Nationalization of School Board Elections

State Politics & Policy Quarterly

... This significantly impacts how democratic politics function. Conversely, those who hold firmer beliefs are more likely to be resistant to changing their attitudes than people who hold less certain beliefs (Holbrook, Heideman, and Weinschenk 2023). It has been demonstrated that when partisan identification and heuristic cognitive models are present, people are more likely to reject information-correcting activities if they firmly hold false viewpoints (Jerit and Zhao 2020). ...

Objective conditions, political knowledge, and perceptions of electoral competition in U.S. mayoral elections

... Policies supporting access to age-friendly housing and agefriendly city planning may also reduce anxiety risk . Socio-political shifts (Smith et al. 2024), environmental catastrophes (Garfin et al. 2022), and health pandemics (Gosselin et al. 2022) may differentially impact anxiety levels among individuals living in different countries. Such national-level factors were beyond the scope of this study, but they merit examination in future multi-modal investigations of anxiety in older adults. ...

On pins and needles: anxiety, politics and the 2020 U.S. Presidential election

Journal of Elections Public Opinion and Parties

... However, in contrast to the present argument, these scholars maintain that voters can make relatively optimal decisions while expending few cognitive resources. 2 Indeed, education's effect on political knowledge appears to be negligible (Weinschenk and Dawes 2019;Weinschenk et al. 2023). Yet, Arceneaux, Johnson, and Maes (2012) find that political knowledge and educational attainment share a large common genetic component that only weakly overlaps with political interest, suggesting that a heritable underlying trait influences both political knowledge and education. ...

The relationship between education and political knowledge: evidence from discordant Danish twins
  • Citing Article
  • July 2021

Journal of Elections Public Opinion and Parties

... In one of the first studies in this area, Dawes et al. (2014) found that common genes can explain most of the relationship between three psychological traits (extraversion, cognitive ability, and personal control) and numerous acts of political participation and political predispositions, such as interest in politics and political efficacy. Follow-up studies looking at other psychological traits, such as the Big Five personality measures, have also found evidence of significant genetic overlap between psychological items and political attitudes and behaviors (Friesen and Ksiazkiewicz 2015;Ksiazkiewicz et al. 2016;Ksiazkiewicz and Friesen 2021;Ksiazkiewicz and Krueger 2017;Oskarsson et al. 2015;Weinschenk and Dawes 2017;Weinschenk and Dawes 2018;Weinschenk et al. 2023). Scholars debate whether these psychological traits should be considered mediators of the effect of genetics on political attitudes or whether these traits and attitudes instead share a common genetic influence; but further research is needed in order to clarify the nature of the association (e.g., for longitudinal research, see Hatemi and Verhulst 2015;Ksiazkiewicz et al. 2020;Verhulst et al. 2012;cf. ...

Genes, personality, and political behavior: A replication and extension using Danish twins
  • Citing Article
  • August 2022

Politics and the Life Sciences

... On the surface, the tendency of Republican counties and states to have worse mental health outcomes is puzzling because Republicans report better general health and mental health than Democrats (Bernardi 2021; Partisan differences in political attitudes and orientations are linked to a host of health outcomes ranging from tobacco (Fox et al. 2017;Kannan and Veazie 2018) and alcohol use (Kannan and Veazie 2018;Musse and Schneider 2023) to exercise and diet (Kannan and Veazie 2018). Political events can also drive mental health (Das et al. 2023;Fraser et al. 2022;Kwon 2023;Mukhopadhyay 2022;Nayak et al. 2021;Nelson 2022;Rosman et al. 2021;Yan et al. 2021), and those whose party or candidate loses an election report significantly lower levels of happiness (Pierce et al. 2016;Pinto et al. 2021), worsened health (Panagopoulos and Weinschenk 2023), and have higher mortality rates (Maas and Lu 2021). While it is possible that some of these partisan differences in health outcomes or attitudes are simply correlational, there is reason to suspect that party identification affects health. ...

Health and Election Outcomes: Evidence from the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election
  • Citing Article
  • July 2022

Political Research Quarterly

... Some studies (Birch 2010) and, more recently, Green et al. (2022) have also highlighted a negative correlation between belief in electoral fraud and voter turnout, as those who question the legitimacy of the electoral process seem less likely to participate in it than those who do not. On the other hand, a recent survey analysis has shown that supporters of the January 6th assault on the U.S. Capitol also reported a higher willingness to vote in the midterms compared to those who disapproved of it (Weinschenk and Panagopoulos 2022). Conspiratorial claims about the legitimacy of the 2020 election can also influence vote choice (Weinschenk, Panagopoulos, and van der Linden 2021). ...

Attitudes and Perceptions about the 2020 Presidential Election and Turnout Intentions in the 2022 Midterms

The Forum

... Adakah terdapat hubungan antara trait personaliti dengan penglibatan dan prestasi kerja (membentuk hipotesis pertama [Ho1], Ho2, dan Ho3 -akan dinyatakan di bahagian "Dapatan Kajian")? Saban tahun, trait personaliti Big Five atau model lima-faktor (FFM) ini telah meraih perhatian bukan sahaja bidang psikologi, malah bidang lain seperti sains politik dan ekonomi yang turut menghargai model ini (Weinschenk et al., 2022) oleh sebab cakupan faktornya yang dilihat menyeluruh dalam mengkaji personaliti individu (Fortunato et al., 2024). Di samping itu, Costa (2008), Morgan (2013), melaporkan bahawa banyak kajian yang lepas telah menekankan tentang kepentingan trait personaliti Big Five atau model FFM ini, terutamanya dalam aspek yang berkaitan dengan kehidupan seperti kualiti perhubungan, adaptasi terhadap kehidupan, psikopatologi, kemerosotan fungsi, kejayaan dalam kerjaya, dan sebagainya. ...

The five factor model of personality and heritability: Evidence from Denmark
  • Citing Article
  • July 2022

Personality and Individual Differences

... On the other hand, a recent survey analysis has shown that supporters of the January 6th assault on the U.S. Capitol also reported a higher willingness to vote in the midterms compared to those who disapproved of it (Weinschenk and Panagopoulos 2022). Conspiratorial claims about the legitimacy of the 2020 election can also influence vote choice (Weinschenk, Panagopoulos, and van der Linden 2021). In this study, we examine whether there is evidence of such effects in the context of the midterm elections this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noDerivatives license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. ...

Democratic Norms, Social Projection, and False Consensus in the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election

Journal of Political Marketing