| 1. |
- Dawes, Christopher T., et al.
(författare)
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Linking Genes and Political Orientations: Testing the Cognitive Ability as Mediator Hypothesis
- 2015
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Ingår i: Political Psychology. - : Wiley: 24 months. - 1467-9221 .- 0162-895X. ; 36:6, s. 649-665
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recent research has demonstrated that genetic differences explain a sizeable fraction of the variance in political orientations, but little is known about the pathways through which genes might affect political preferences. In this article, we use a uniquely assembled dataset of almost 1,000 Swedish male twin pairs containing detailed information on cognitive ability and political attitudes in order to further examine the genetic and environmental causes of political orientations. Our study makes three distinct contributions to our understanding of the etiology of political orientations: (1) we report heritability estimates across different dimensions of political ideology; (2) we show that cognitive ability and political orientations are related; and (3) we provide evidence consistent with the hypothesis that cognitive ability mediates part of the genetic influence on political orientations. These findings provide important clues about the nature of the complex pathways from molecular genetic variation to political orientations.
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| 2. |
- Kugelberg, Susanna, et al.
(författare)
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Understanding the process of establishing a food and nutrition policy : the case of Slovenia
- 2012
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Ingår i: Health Policy. - Clare, Ireland : Elsevier. - 0168-8510 .- 1872-6054. ; 107:1, s. 91-97
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: There has been an increasing effort across Europe to develop national policies in food and nutrition during the last decade. However, little is known about how public health nutrition issues get on the public health agenda and the roles individuals have when these agendas are being set.Objectives: The aims of this study were to scrutinise the development process of the Slovenian national food and nutrition policy, and to identify the roles and functions of individuals who have contributed to that process.Methods: This study undertook a qualitative approach. Data collection included 18 semi-structured interviews between 2007 and 2011, and grey and scientific literature search. Text analysis was based on Kingdon's streams model, which involved highlighting the relationship between problem identification, policy solutions and political opportunities. Data were coded to identify the roles and functions of individuals participating in the agenda-setting process.Results: The analysis showed that the opportunity for the Slovenian food and nutrition policy to be developed was largely explained by a change in political circumstances, namely the accession of Slovenia to the European Union and the Common Agricultural Policy. Individuals with experience in policy development were identified because of their analytical, strategic and policy entrepreneurial skills. The analyst was responsible for communicating the key nutrition issues to policy-makers, the strategist joined international networks and promoted policy solutions from international experts including the World Health Organization, and the policy entrepreneur took advantage of the political situation to enlist the participation of previous opponents to a national nutrition policy.Conclusion: This study found that individuals, their roles and skills, played an important role in the development of the Slovenian National Food and Nutrition Policy. The roles and functions of these individuals, which are identified in this study, may assist future endeavours to advance public health nutrition as a key political issue.
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| 3. |
- Svärd, Per-Anders, 1973-, et al.
(författare)
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Fetal and Animal Research in Sweden : The Construction of Viable Lives in Regulatory Policy Debates, 1970–1980
- 2021
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Ingår i: Studies in history and philosophy of science. - : Elsevier. - 0039-3681 .- 1879-2510. ; 89, s. 248-256
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Following demands to regulate biomedicine in the post-war period, Sweden saw several political debates about research ethics in the 1970s. Many of the debates centered on fetal research and animal experiments. At stake were questions of moral permissibility, public transparency, and scientific freedom. However, these debates did not only reveal ethical disagreement—they also contributed to constructing new boundaries between life-forms. Taking a post-Marxist approach to discursive policy analysis, we argue that the meaning of both the “human” and the “animal” in these debates was shaped by a need to manage a legitimacy crisis for medical science. By analyzing Swedish government bills, motions, parliamentary debates, and committee memorials from the 1970s, we map out how fetal and animal research were constituted as policy problems. We place particular emphasis on the problematization of fetal and animal vulnerability. By comparing the debates, we trace out how a particular vision of the ideal life defined the human-animal distinction.
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| 4. |
- Bondelind, Mia, 1980, et al.
(författare)
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Building trust: the importance of democratic legitimacy in the formation of consumer attitudes toward drinking water
- 2019
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Ingår i: Water Policy. - : IWA Publishing. - 1366-7017 .- 1996-9759. ; 21:1, s. 1-18
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study aimed to explore the role of democratic decision legitimacy in the formation of consumer attitudes toward drinking water. Using consumer-level data on the decision to change the drinking water sources in two Swedish cities, three core sets of variables were constructed: (1) the overall democratic decision legitimacy, defined as the citizens' support for the decision; (2) the input, throughput and output dimensions of decision legitimacy, representing the citizens' perceived opportunity to provide input, their ability to oversee, as well as their level of satisfaction with the outcome of the decision-making process; and (3) consumer attitudes toward drinking water, comprising trust, risk perception and acceptance. The results of the study provide support for the proposed mechanism that consumers that perceive a decision-making process more positively also tend to support the ultimate decision more, which in turn helps to establish more positive consumer attitudes towards their drinking water. Consequently, democratic legitimacy is an important precursor for building trust. This is particularly important if a waterborne outbreak has negatively impacted consumers' trust in their water, and when political and engineering decisions must be made.
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| 5. |
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Dawes, Christopher T, et al.
(författare)
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The Relationship Between Genes, Psychological Traits, and Political Participation
- 2014
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Ingår i: American Journal of Political Science. - : Wiley-Blackwell. - 0092-5853 .- 1540-5907. ; 58:4, s. 888-903
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recent research demonstrates that a wide range of political attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors canbe explained in part by genetic variation. However, these studies have not yet identied themechanisms that generate such a relationship. Some scholars have speculated that psychologicaltraits mediate the relationship between genes and political participation, but so far there havebeen no empirical tests. Here we focus on the role of three psychological traits that are believed toinuence political participation: cognitive ability, personal control, and extraversion. Utilizinga unique sample of more than 2,000 Swedish twin pairs, we show that a common genetic factorcan explain most of the relationship between these psychological traits and acts of politicalparticipation as well as predispositions related to participation. While our analysis is not adenitive test, our results suggest an upper bound for a proposed mediation relationship betweengenes, psychological traits, and political participation.
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| 9. |
- Hatemi, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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Genetic Influences on Political Ideologies : Twin Analyses of 19 Measures of Political Ideologies from Five Democraciesand Genome-Wide Findings from Three Populations
- 2014
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Ingår i: Behavior Genetics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0001-8244 .- 1573-3297. ; 44:3, s. 282-294
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Almost 40 years ago, evidence from large studies of adult twins and their relatives suggested that between 30 and 60 % of the variance in social and political attitudes could be explained by genetic influences. However, these findings have not been widely accepted or incorporated into the dominant paradigms that explain the etiology of political ideology. This has been attributed in part to measurement and sample limitations, as well the relative absence of molecular genetic studies. Here we present results from original analyses of a combined sample of over 12,000 twins pairs, ascertained from nine different studies conducted in five democracies, sampled over the course of four decades. We provide evidence that genetic factors play a role in the formation of political ideology, regardless of how ideology is measured, the era, or the population sampled. The only exception is a question that explicitly uses the phrase “Left–Right”. We then present results from one of the first genome-wide association studies on political ideology using data from three samples: a 1990 Australian sample involving 6,894 individuals from 3,516 families; a 2008 Australian sample of 1,160 related individuals from 635 families and a 2010 Swedish sample involving 3,334 individuals from 2,607 families. No polymorphisms reached genome-wide significance in the meta-analysis. The combined evidence suggests that political ideology constitutes a fundamental aspect of one’s genetically informed psychological disposition, but as Fisher proposed long ago, genetic influences on complex traits will be composed of thousands of markers of very small effects and it will require extremely large samples to have enough power in order to identify specific polymorphisms related to complex social traits.
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| 10. |
- Hopmann, David Nicolas, et al.
(författare)
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Selective Media Exposure and Increasing Knowledge Gaps in Swiss Referendum Campaigns
- 2016
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Ingår i: International journal of public opinion research. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0954-2892 .- 1471-6909. ; 28:1, s. 73-95
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study aims to contribute to the discussion on how the growing opportunities for media choice influence gaps in political knowledge among those motivated to consume news versus those who are not. With more television channels available, it becomes easier to choose content matching personal interests. While several studies have analyzed trends in news consumption and motivations among different citizen groups, there are still very few studies that actually link these developments longitudinally to patterns of knowledge gaps. Using survey data from Swiss referendums held 1993-1999, we find that (1) gaps in political knowledge because of political interest have increased over time, and (2) political interest has become a stronger predictor of informational TV use.
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