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Political attitudes
and behaviour:
nature or nurture?
BY ROBERT KLEMMENSEN AND ASBJØRN SONNE NØRGAARD
Robert Klemmensen
(born 1972), associate
professor in political sci-
ence at the University of
Southern Denmark. He
has previously done research on
governments’ negotiated policy
settlements, government respon-
siveness to voter demands, and
political behaviour and attitude
formation, at an elite as well as
at a mass level.
Asbjørn Sonne Nør-
gaard (born 1966),
professor in political sci-
ence at the University
of Southern Denmark.
Among other things he has stud-
ied the interaction between par-
liament and organised interests,
and the role of the media in poli-
tics. His long-standing interest
in attitude formation and politi-
cal participation at an elite level
now extends to the mass level.
In 2009 the VELUX FOUNDATION granted DKK 5,435,000
to the project “Nature or Nurture - What Determines Political
Attitudes, Values and Behaviour?”. Traditionally, the focus in
political science has been on environmental factors such as early
childhood socialisation, culture, and social and economic status
to account for political attitudes and behaviour. In psychology
and behavioural genetics it has long been recognised that biol-
ogy also influences people’s values and behaviour. By comparing
fraternal and identical twins, the project examines if and how
heritability influences individual political traits. The project sur-
veys the political attitudes and behaviours of more than 3,500
20-40-year-old twins over a four-year period. The initial results
show that genetic factors play a role in political attitude forma-
tion and the individual’s inclination to be politically active.
Thanks to the grant, Dr. Sara Binzer Hobolt of Oxford Univer-
sity has been able to join the research group under a part-time
professorship at the University of Southern Denmark. The grant
has also made it possible to recruit Dr. Peter Thisted Dinesen as
a postdoctoral assistant professor. The Danish Agency for Sci-
ence, Technology and Innovation has supported the hiring of
two PhD students, who are now working on dissertations re-
lated to the project. Recently, the Dean of the Faculty of Social
Science at the University of Southern Denmark decided that a
research programme developed on the basis of the project sup-
ported by the VELUX FOUNDATION is to be a priority field
of high international standard.
Since the era of Enlightenment, social sciences have largely assumed that
human behaviour, feelings and values could be explained by externally
given factors. Man is born as a ‘clean slate’, a ‘tabula rasa’. Gradually, the
slate fills up via early socialisation at home, then among friends, at edu-
cational institutions and with experiences from work and family life. All
these elements help people shape their outlook on life.
According to this classic paradigm, we should be able to explain our at-
titudes and values by differences in the socialisation to which we have
been exposed. It follows that people who have been exposed to identical
socialisation and have similar experiences should develop similar values
and attitudes.
The challenge
Our project challenges these assumptions. We ask to what extent biology
can explain why people develop different attitudes; in other words, could
genetic disposition play a role in addition to external socialisation?
The first step in our investigation is to examine whether attitudes and
values are heritable at all. If they turn out to be partially heritable, the
assumption of socialisation as the only cause of attitudes and values must
be rejected.
The Danish Twin Registry at
the University of Southern
Denmark is the oldest of its
kind in the world, and as such
a mine of information for scientists
interested in the significance
of heritability and environment
in the context of ageing
and predisposition to certain
diseases. The registry is
now also being used to investigate
how heritability and environment
influence political
attitudes and political involvement.
Logo: The Danish Twin
Registry
Identical twins have not only
been raised by the same parents,
genetically they are also
100% identical. Both factors
may indicate that they develop
identical political attitudes
and interests, because heritability
too plays a role. Photo:
Colourbox.com
60 POLITICAL ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOUR VELUX FOUNDATION 61
HUMANITIES