Abstract
Following the foundational work of the ENCODE project the definition of a gene has changed, from a specific DNA sequence coding for a protein, to a process dominated by epigenetics. Epigenetics is a regulatory network that activates, or silences genes based on environmental influences. Epigenetics is the interface between the environment and the genome. The relevance of epigenetics to social policy and therefore politics is that all environmental insult factors affect the human body, not just in the present but passed on in the epigenome to future generations. Transgenerational epigenetics can even pass the impact of trauma (such as from the Holocaust) from one generation to the next. Politics and social policy have yet to respond to the impact of epigenetics on health and disease. Psychological/ideological factors blocking acceptance of epigenetic influence on social policy are motivated reasoning, just world view, blaming the victim, and binding values. Both personal responsibility factors (which conservatives espouse) and the interactional influence of the environment (which liberals appreciate) are at work in producing epigenetic outcomes across generations.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Alexander, G. (1979). Cold thermogenesis. International Review of Physiology, 20, 43–155.
Alford, J. R., Funk, C. L., & Hibbing, J. R. (2005). Are political orientations genetically transmitted? American Political Science Review, 99(2), 153–167. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055405051579
Armstrong, L. (2014). Epigenetics. New York: Garland Science.
Bradatan, C. (2019, July 5). Democracy is for the gods. The New York Times. www.nytimes.com › 2019/07/05 › opinion › why-democracies-fail
Bjorklund, D. F. (2018). Behavioral epigenetics: The last nail in the coffin of genetic determinism. Human Development, 61, 54–59. https://doi.org/10.1159/000481747
Block, J., & Block, J. H. (2006). Nursery school personality and political orientation two decades later. Journal of Research in Personality, 40, 734–749. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2005.09.005
Boardman, J. D. (2011). Gene-environment interplay for the study of political behaviors. In P. K. Hatemi & R. McDermott (Eds.), Man is by nature a political animal: Evolution, biology, and politics (pp. 185–206). Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Bolton, J. L., Short, A. K., Simeone, K. A., Daglian, J., & Baram, T. Z. (2019). Programming of stress-sensitive neurons and circuits by early-life experiences. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 13, 30. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2019.00030
Brown, J. L. (1975). Evolution and animal behavior. New York: Norton.
Burggren, W. W. (2015). Dynamics of epigenetic phenomena: Intergenerational and intragenerational phenotype ‘washout’. Journal of Experimental Biology, 218, 80–87. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.107318
Burggren, W. W. (2016). Epigenetic inheritance and its role in evolutionary biology: Re-evaluation and new perspectives. Biology, 5(2), 24. https://doi.org/10.3390/biology5020024
Bygren, L. O., Tinghög, P., Carstensen, J., Edvinsson, S., Kaati, G., Pembrey, M. E., & Sjöström, M. (2014). Change in paternal grandmothers’ early food supply influenced cardiovascular mortality of the female grandchildren. BMC Genetics, 15(1), 12. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2156-15-12
Cabej, N. (2019). Epigenetic principles of evolution (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Academic.
Capa, R. L., & Bouquet, C. A. (2018). Individual differences in reward sensitivity modulate the distinctive effects of conscious and unconscious rewards on executive performance. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 148. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00148
Caprara, G., & Vecchione, M. (2013). Personality approaches to political behavior. In L. Huddy, D. O. Sears, & J. S. Levy (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of political psychology (pp. 23–58). New York: Oxford University Press.
Carey, N. (2012). The epigenetics revolution: How modern biology is rewriting our understanding of genetics, disease, and inheritance. New York: Columbia University Press.
Champagne, F. A. (2008). Epigenetics mechanisms and the transgenerational effects of maternal care. Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology, 29(3), 386–397. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yfrne.2008.03
Champagne, F. A. (2010). Epigenetic influence of social experiences across the lifespan. Developmental Psychobiology, 52(4), 299–311. https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.20436
Chappell, H. (2018, January 18). Time for conservatives to break the anti-environmentalist mold. The American Conservative. https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/time-for-conservatives-to-break-the-antienvironmentalist-mold/.
Christakis, N. (2019). Blueprint: The evolutionary origins of a good society. New York: Little, Brown Spark.
Chua, A. (2018). Political tribes: Group instinct and the fate of nations. New York: Penguin Press.
Coleman, K. (2012). Individual differences in temperament and behavioral management practices for nonhuman primates. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 137(3-4), 106–113.
Crews, D. (2011). Epigenetic modifications of brain and behavior: Theory and practice. Hormones and Behavior, 59(3), 393–398. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2010.07.001
Crews, D. (2014). Nature, nurture and epigenetics. Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology, 398, 42–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mce.2014.07.013. Epub 2014 Aug 4.
Crews, D., Gillette, R., Scarpino, S. V., Manikkam, M., Savenkova, M. I., & Skinner, M. K. (2012). Epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of altered stress responses. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(23), 9143–9148. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1118514109
Dar-Nimrod, I., & Heine, S. J. (2011). Genetic essentialism: On the deceptive determinism of DNA. Psychological Bulletin, 137(5), 800–818. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021860
Darwin, C. (1859). On the origin of species by means of natural selection (p. 1998). Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Limited.
Dewsbury, D. A. (1991). Psychobiology. American Psychologist, 46, 198–205.
Epstein, D. (2013). How an 1836 Famine altered the genes of children born decades later. https://io9.gizmodo.com/how-an-1836-famine-altered-the-genes-of-children-born-d-1...
Fausto-Sterling, A. (1985, 1992). Myths of gender: Biological theories about women and men. New York: Basic Books.
Fire, A., Xu, S., Montgomery, M. K., Kostas, S. A., Driver, S. E., & Mello, C. C. (1998). Potent and specific genetic interference by double-stranded RNA in Caenorhabditis elegans. Nature, 391(6669), 806–811.
Fowler, J. H., & Dawes, C. T. (2008). Two genes predict voter turnout. Journal of Politics, 70(3), 579–594. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022381608080638
Fowler, J. H., & Dawes, C. T. (2013). In defense of genopolitics. American Political Science Review, 107(2), 362–374. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055413000063
Fowler, J. H., Settle, J. E., & Christakis, N. A. (2011). Correlated genotypes in friendship networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA, 108(5), 1993–1997. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1011687108
Fraga, M. F., Ballestar, E., Paz, S. M., Ropero, S., Setien, F., Ballestar, M. L., … Esteller, M. (2005). Epigenetic differences arise during the lifetime of monozygotic twins. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102(30), 10604–10609. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0500398102
Francis, R. C. (2012). Epigenetics: How our environment shapes our genes. New York: W. W. Norton.
Freedman, D. G. (1958). Constitutional and environmental interactions in rearing four breeds of dogs. Science, 127(3298), 585–586. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.127.3298.585
Frisancho, R. A. (2009). Developmental adaptation: Where we go from here. American Journal of Human Biology, 21(5), 694–703. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.20891
Funk, C. L. (2013). Genetic foundations of political behavior. In L. Huddy, D. O. Sears, & J. S. Levy (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of political psychology (pp. 237–261). New York: Oxford University Press.
Funk, C. L., Smith, K. B., Alford, J. R., Hibbing, M. V., Eaton, N. R., Krueger, R. F., … Hibbing, J. R. (2013). Genetic and environmental transmission of political orientations. Political Psychology, 34(6), 805–819. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2012.00915.x
Gehlbach, H., Robinson, C. D., & Vriesema, C. C. (2019). Leveraging cognitive consistency to nudge conservative climate change beliefs. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 61, 134–137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2018.12.004
Gerstein, M. B., Bruce, C., Rozowsky, J. S., Zheng, D., Du, J., Korbel, J. O., … Snyder, M. (2007). What is a gene, post-ENCODE? History and updated definition. Genome Research, 17(6), 669–681. https://doi.org/10.1101/gr.6339607
Gerstein, M. B., Kundaje, A., Hariharan, M., Landt, S. G., Yan, K.-K., Cheng, C., … Snyder, M. (2012). Architecture of the human regulatory network derived from ENCODE data. Nature, 489, 91–100. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11245
Ghosh, M., Öner, D., Duca, R. C., Bekaert, B., Vanoirbeek, J., Godderis, L., & Hoet, P. (2018). Single-walled and multi-walled carbon nanotubes induce sequence-specific epigenetic alterations in 16 HBE cells. Oncotarget, 9(29), 20351–20365. https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.24866
Gibbons, A. (2012). Bonobos join chimps as closest human relatives. Science | AAAS. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2012/…/bonobos-join-chimps-closest-human-relativ…
Gould, S. J. (1982). The mismeasure of man. New York: Norton.
Graves, J. L. (2015). Great is their sin: Biological determinism in the age of genomics. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 661(1), 24–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716215586558
Gray, J. D., Kogan, J. F., Marrocco, J., & McEwen, B. S. (2017). Genomic and epigenetic mechanisms of glucocorticoids in the brain. Nature Reviews Endocrinology, 13(11), 661–673. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2017.97. Epub 2017 Sep 1.
Gross, C., & Hen, R. (2004). The developmental origins of anxiety. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 5, 545–552. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1429
Guerrero-Bosagna, C., Morisson, M., Liaubet, L., Rodenburg, T. B., de Haas, E. N., Košťál, Ľ., & Pitel, F. (2018). Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance in birds. Environmental Epigenetics, 4(2), 1–8. doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/eep/dvy008.eCollection 2018 Apr.
Hall, S. S. (2019, February 20). The lost generation: Trump’s environmental policies are putting the health of American children at risk. New York Magazine.https://nymag.com/intelligencer/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/02/trump-epa-risking-health-of-american-children.html
Hatemi, P. K., & McDermott, R. (2011). Man is by nature a political animal: Evolution, biology, and politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hatemi, P. K., Medland, S. E., Klemmensen, R., Oskarsson, S., Littvay, L., Dawes, C. T., … Martin, N. G. (2014). Genetic influences on political ideologies: Twin analyses of 19 measures of political ideologies from five democracies and genome-wide findings from three populations. Behavior Genetics, 44(3), 282–294. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-014-9648-8
Hathaway, B. (2012, September 5). Yale team finds order amidst the chaos within the human genome. Biostatistics, Yale School of Public Health.
Hebb, D. (1949). The organization of behavior. New York: Wiley.
Heitmann, B. L., Westerterp, K. R., Loos, R. J. F., Sørensen, T. I. A., O’Dea, K., McLean, P., … Westerterp-Plantenga, M. S. (2012). Obesity: Lessons from evolution and the environment. Obesity Reviews, 13(10), 910–922. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-789X.2012.01007.x
Hibbing, J. R., Smith, K. B., & Alford, J. R. (2014). Predisposed: Liberals, Conservatives, and the biology of political differences. New York: Routledge.
Hodes, G. E., Walker, D. M., Labonté, B., Nestler, E. J., & Russo, S. J. (2017). Understanding the epigenetic basis of sex differences in depression. Journal of Neuroscience Research, 95(1-2), 692–702. https://doi.org/10.1002/jnr.23876
Horsthemke, B. (2018). A critical view on transgenerational epigenetic inheritance in humans. Nature Communications, 9(2973). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05445-5
Houri-Zeevi, L., & Rechavi, O. (2017). A matter of time: Small RNAs regulate the duration of epigenetic inheritance. Trends in Genetics, 33(1), 46–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tig.2016.11.001. Epub 2016 Dec 9.
Hubbard, R. (1990). The politics of women’s biology. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Ilardo, M., & Nielsen, R. (2018). Human adaptation to extreme environmental conditions. Current Opinion in Genetics & Development, 53, 77–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gde.2018.07.003
Jørgensen, M. E. (2016). Obesity and diabetes — an Arctic challenge. International Journal of Circumpolar Health, 69(4), 320–321.
Kaati, G., Bygren, L., & Edvinsson, S. (2002). Cardiovascular and diabetes mortality determined by nutrition during parents’ and grandparents’ slow growth period. European Journal of Human Genetics, 10, 682–688. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejhg.5200859
Kahan, D. M. (2013). Ideology, motivated reasoning, and cognitive reflection. Judgment and Decision Making, 8(4), 407–424.
Kandler, C., Bleidorn, W., & Riemann, R. (2012). Left or right? Sources of political orientation: The roles of genetic factors, cultural transmission, assortative mating, and personality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102, 633.
Kaplan, G., & Rogers, L. J. (2003). Gene worship: Moving beyond the nature/nurture debate over genes, brain, and gender. New York: Other Press.
Keller, J. (2005). In genes we trust: The biological component of psychological essentialism and its relationship to mechanisms of motivated social cognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(4), 686–702.
Keller, E. F. (2010). Goodbye nature vs nurture debate. New Scientist, 207(2778), 28–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0262-4079(10)62277-4
Keller, E. F. (2012). Genes, genomes, and genomics. Biological Theory, 6(2), 132–140. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-012-0014-x
Keller, E. F. (2014). From gene action to reactive genomes. Journal of Physiology, 592, 2423–2429.
Keller, E. F. (2016). Thinking about biology and culture: Can the natural and human sciences be integrated? The Sociological Review, 64(1), 26–41. https://doi.org/10.1111/2059-7932.12011
Kellermann, N. P. (2013). Epigenetic transmission of Holocaust trauma: Can nightmares be inherited? Israeli Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences, 50(1), 33–39.
Kim, Y. (2009). Future directions for behavior genetics. In Y. Kim (Ed.), Handbook of behavior genetics (p. 515). New York: Springer.
Knudsen, M. T., Faisal, F. I., Rezwan, I., Jiang, Y., Karmaus, W., Svanes, C., & Holloway, J. W. (2018). Transgenerational and intergenerational epigenetic inheritance in allergic diseases. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 142(3), 765–772. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2018.07.007
Kong, A., Thorleifsson, G., Frigge, M. L., Vilhjalmsson, B. J., Young, A. I., Thorgeirsson, T. E., … Stefansson, K. (2018). The nature of nurture: Effects of parental genotypes. Science, 359, 424–428. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aan6877
Kuska, B. (1998). Beer, Bethesda, and biology: How genomics came into being. Journal National Cancer Institute, 90(2), 93.
Lacal, I., & Ventura, R. (2018). Epigenetic inheritance: Concepts, mechanisms and perspectives. Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience, 11, 292. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnmol.2018.00292. eCollection 2018.
Lee, J., Kwak, Y., Kim, Y. J., Kim, E. J., Park, E. J., Shin, Y., & Lee, S. I. (2019). Transgenerational transmission of trauma: Psychiatric evaluation of offspring of former “Comfort Women,” survivors of the Japanese military sexual slavery during World War II. Psychiatry Investigation, 16(3), 249–253. https://doi.org/10.30773/pi.2019.01.21. Epub 2019 Mar 21.
Lehrman, D. S. (1953). A critique of Konrad Lorenz’ theory of instinctive behavior. Quarterly Review of Biology, 28(4), 337–363.
Lehrman, D. S. (1965). Interaction between internal and external environments in the regulation of the reproductive cycle of the ring dove. In F. A. Beach (Ed.), Sex and behavior (pp. 355–380). New York: Wiley.
Leonard, W. R. (2018). Centennial perspective on human adaptability. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 165, 813–833. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.23401
Lerner, M. J., & Simmons, C. H. (1966). Observer’s reaction to the “innocent victim”: Compassion or rejection? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4(2), 203–210. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0023562
Lerner, M. J. (1980). The belief in a just world. New York: Springer Science-Business.
Li, E., Beard, C., & Jaenisch, R. (1993). Role for DNA methylation in genomic imprinting. Nature, 366(6453), 362–365.
Li, S., Chen, M., Li, Y., & Tollefsbol, T. O. (2019). Prenatal epigenetics diets play protective roles against environmental pollution. Clinical Epigenetics, 11(1), 82. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13148-019-0659-4
Lips, H. (2019). Gender: The basics (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
Lorenz, K. Z. (1952). King Solomon’s ring. London: Methuen Publishing.
Lubin, F. D., Roth, T. L., & Sweatt, J. D. (2008). Epigenetic regulation of BDNF gene transcription in the consolidation of fear memory. Journal of Neuroscience, 28, 10576–10586. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1786-08.2008
Manuck, S. B., & McCaffery, J. M. (2014). Gene-environment interaction. Annual Review of Psychology, 65(1), 41–70. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115100
Marcus, G. E. (2013). Political psychology: Neuroscience, genetics, and politics. New York: Oxford University Press.
McLaughlin, M. (1997). The ultimate political animal. Res Publica, New York: Springer.
Mello, C. V. (2004). Gene regulation by song in the auditory telencephalon of songbirds. Frontiers in Bioscience, 9(1-3), 63–73.
Meloni, M. (2015). Epigenetics for the social sciences: justice, embodiment, and inheritance in the postgenomic age. New Genetics and Society, 34(2), 125–151.
Miller, G. E., Chen, E., Fok, A. K., Walker, H., Lim, A., Nicholls, E. F., … Kobor, M. S. (2009). Low early-life social class leaves a biological residue manifested by decreased glucocorticoid and increased proinflammatory signaling. Proceedings of the National Association of Science, 106(34), 14716–14721. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0902971106
Moffitt, E., Caspi, A., & Rutter, M. (2006). Measured gene-environment interactions in psychopathology: Concepts, research strategies, and implications for research, intervention, and public understanding of genetics. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1(1), 5–27. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6916.2006.00002.x
Moore, D. S. (2015). The developing genome: An introduction to behavioral epigenetics. New York: Oxford University Press.
Moore, D. S., & Shenk, D. (2017). The heritability fallacy. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 8(1-2). https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1400
Moore, L. D., Le, T., & Fan, G. (2013). DNA methylation and its basic function. Neuropsychopharmacology, 38(1), 23–38. https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2012.112
Newkirk II, V. R. (2018, February 28). Trump’s EPA concludes environmental racism is real. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com›politics›archive›2018/02›the-trump-ad...
Ngun, T. C., & Vilain, E. (2014). The biological basis of human sexual orientation: Is there a role for epigenetics? In D. Yamamoto (Ed.), Epigenetic shaping of sociosexual interactions: From plants to humans (pp. 167–184). Cambridge, MA: Elsevier.
Niemi, L., & Young, L. (2016). When and why we see victims as responsible: The impact of ideology on attitudes toward victims. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 42(9), 1227–1242. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167216653933
Nilsson, E., Sadler-Riggleman, I., & Skinner, M. K. (2018) Environmentally induced epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of disease. Environmental Epigenetics. 4(2), 1–13, dvy016.
NIH: National Human Genome Research Institute. (2016, April 1). https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/Epigenomics-Fact-Sheet
Payne-Sturges, D. C., Marty, M. A., Perera, F., Miller, M. D., Swanson, M., Ellickson, K., … Hertz-Picciotto, I. (2019). Healthy air, healthy brains: Advancing air pollution policy to protect children’s health. American Journal of Public Health, 109(4), 550–554. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304902
Pembrey, M., Saffery, R., & Bygren, L. O. (2014). Human transgenerational responses to early-life experience: Potential impact on development, health and biomedical research. Journal of Medical Genetics, 51, 563–572. https://doi.org/10.1136/jmedgenet-2014-102577
Perroud, N., Paoloni-Giacobino, A., Prada, P., Olié, E., Salzmann, A., Nicastro, R., & Malafosse, A. (2011). Increased methylation of glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1) in adults with a history of childhood maltreatment: A link with the severity and type of trauma. Translational Psychiatry, 1(12), e59–e59. https://doi.org/10.1038/tp.2011.60
Plomin, R., DeFries, J. C., & Loehlin, J. C. (1977). Genotype-environment interaction and correlation in the analysis of human behavior. Psychological Bulletin, 84, 309–322. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.84.2.309
Plomin, R., DeFries, J. C., McClearn, G. E., & McGuffin, P. (2008). Behavioral genetics. New York: Worth Publishers.
Powledge, T. M. (2011). Behavioral epigenetics: How nature shapes nurture. Bioscience, 61(8), 588–592. https://doi.org/10.1525/bio.2011.61.8.4
Pray, L. A. (2004). Epigenetics: Genome meet your environment. The Scientist, 18, 14–20.
Rabin, J. S. (1975). Effects of varying sucrose reinforcers and amobarbital sodium on positive contrast in rats. Learning and Behavior, 3(4), 290–294.
Rabin, J. S. (1986). Adaptation across the lifespan: Evolution, future shock, and sex roles. In J. D. Sinnott (Ed.), Sex roles and aging: Theory and research from a systems perspective. Basel: Karger.
Rabin, J. G. (2004). Surviving the crossing: (Im)migration, ethnicity, and gender in Willa Cather, Gertrude Stein, and Nella Larson. New York: Routledge.
Rice, W. R., Friberg, U., & Gavrilets, S. (2012). Homosexuality as a consequence of epigenetically canalized sexual development. Quarterly Review of Biology, 87(4), 343–368.
Robison, S. K. (2016). The political implications of epigenetics: Emerging narratives and ideologies. Politics and the Life Sciences, 35(2), 30–53. https://doi.org/10.1017/pls.2016.14
Robison, S. K. (2019). Epigenetics and public policy: The tangled web of science and politics. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO.
Rode, A., & Shephard, R. J. (1984). Growth, development, and acculturation – A ten-year comparison of Canadian Inuit children. Human Biology, 56, 217–230.
Rode, A., & Shephard, R. J. (1994). Physiological consequences of acculturation: A 20-year study of an Inuit community. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 69, 516–524.
Sack, H. (2018). Konrad Lorenz and the study of instinctive behaviour of animals. SciHi Blog Daily blog on science, tech, & art in history. 7 November scihi.org/konrad-lorenz-behaviour-animal/
Sagiv, S. K., Bruno, J. L., Baker, J. M., Palzes, V., Kogut, K., Rauch, S., … Eskenazi, B. (2019). Prenatal exposure to organophosphate pesticides and functional neuroimaging in adolescents living in proximity to pesticide application. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(37), 18347–18356.
Sambeat, A., Gulyaeva, O., Dempersmier, J., & Sul, H. S. (2017). Epigenetic regulation of the thermogenic adipose program. Trends Endocrinology and Metabolism, 28(1), 19–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tem.2016.09.0
Sassone Corsi, P., & Christen, Y. (Eds.). (2012). Epigenetics, brain and behavior. New York: Springer.
Schulz, L. C. (2010). The Dutch Hunger Winter and the developmental origins of health and disease. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(39), 16757–16758. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1012911107
Scorza, P., Duarte, C. S., Hipwell, A. E., Posner, J., Ortin, A., Canino, G. J., & Monk, C. (2019). Research Review: Intergenerational transmission of disadvantage: Epigenetics and parents’childhoods as the first exposure. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 60(2), 119–132. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12877
Scott, J. P., & Fuller, J. L. (1965). Genetics and the social behavior of the dog: The classic study. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Settle, J. E., Dawes, C. T., & Fowler, J. H. (2009). The heritability of partisan attachment. Political Research Quarterly, 62(3), 601–613. https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912908327607
Settle, J. E., Dawes, C. T., Christakis, N. A., & Fowler, J. H. (2010). Friendships moderate an association between a dopamine gene variant and political ideology. Journal of Politics, 72(4), 1189–1198. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022381610000617
Settle, J. E., Dawes, C. T., Loewen, P. J., & Panagopoulos, C. (2017). Negative affectivity, political contention, and turnout: A genopolitics field experiment. Political Psychology, 38, 1065–1082. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12379
Shephard, R. J., & Rode, A. (1996). Health consequences of ‘modernization’: Evidence from circumpolar peoples. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Simpson, E. A., Sclafani, V., Paukner, A., Kaburu, S. S. K., Suomi, S. J., & Ferrari, P. F. (2019). Handling newborn monkeys alters later exploratory, cognitive, and social behaviors. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 35, 12–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2017.07.0
Skinner, M. K. (2015). Environmental epigenetics and a unified theory of the molecular aspects of evolution: A neo-Lamarckian concept that facilitates neo-Darwinian evolution. Genome Biology and Evolution, 7(5), 1296–1302. https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evv073
Snyder, M., & Gerstein, M. (2003). Defining genes in the genomics era. Science, 300, 258–260.
Suhay, E., & Jayaratne, T. E. (2013). Does biology justify ideology? The politics of genetic attribution. Public Opinion Quarterly, 77(2), 497–521. https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfs049
Sun, W., Dong, H., Becker, A. S., Dapito, D. H., Modica, S., Grandl, G., … Wolfrum, C. (2018). Cold-induced epigenetic programming of the sperm enhances brown adipose tissue activity in the offspring. Nature Medicine, 24(9), 1372–1383. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-018-0102-y
Suomi, S. J. (2011). Risk, resilience, and gene-environment interplay in primates. Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 20(4), 289–297.
Terrizzi, J. A., Jr., Shook, N. J., & McDaniel, M. A. (2012). The behavioral immune system and social conservatism: A meta-analysis. Evolution and Human Behavior, 34(2), 99–108.
Thomas, A., Chess, S., & Birch, H. G. (1970). The origin of personality. Scientific American, 223(2), 102–109. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0870-102
Tinbergen, N. (1951). The study of instinct. New York: Oxford University Press.
Tobach, E. (1976). Evolution of behavior and the comparative method. International Journal of Psychology, 11(3), 185–201.
Tobi, E. W., Slieker, R. C., Luijk, R., Dekkers, K. F., Stein, A. D., Xu, K. M., … Heijmans, B. T. (2018). DNA methylation as a mediator of the association between prenatal adversity and risk factors for metabolic disease in adulthood. Science Advances, 4(1), 4364. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aao4364
Toffler, A. (1970). Future shock. New York: Bantam Books.
Toffler, A. (1980). The third wave. New York: Bantam Books.
Tollefsbol, T. (Ed.). (2019). Transgenerational epigenetics (Vol. 13, 2nd ed.). Cambridge, MA: Academic.
Turecki, G., & Meaney, M. J. (2016). Effects of the social environment and stress on glucocorticoid receptor gene methylation: A systematic review. Biological Psychiatry, 79, 87–96. www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/S0006-3223(14)00967-6/pdf
Uddin, M., Aiello, A. E., Wildman, D. E., Koenen, K. C., Pawelec, G., de Los Santos, R., … Galea, S. (2010). Epigenetic and immune function profiles associated with posttraumatic stress disorder. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA, 107, 9470–9475. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0910794107
Waddington, C. H. (1942). The epigenotype. Endeavor, 1, 18–20.
Waddington, C. H. (1957). The strategy of the genes: A discussion of some aspects of theoretical biology. London: George Allen & Unwin.
Weinschenk, A. C., & Dawes, C. T. (2018). Genes, personality traits, and the sense of civic duty. American Politics Research, 46(1), 47–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X17710760
Weinschenk, A., Dawes, C., Kandler, C., Bell, E., & Riemann, R. (2019). New evidence on the link between genes, psychological traits, and political engagement. Politics and the Life Sciences, 38(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1017/pls.2019.3
Wilson, E. O. (1975). Sociobiology: The new synthesis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Witherington, D. C., & Lickliter, R. (2017). Transcending the nature-nurture debate through epigenetics: Are we there yet? Human Development, 60(2-3), 65–68. https://doi.org/10.1159/000478796
Wrangham, R. W. (2018). Two types of aggression in human evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(2), 245–253.
Zhang, R. (Ed.). (2018). The epigenetics of autoimmunity. Cambridge, MA: Elsevier Science.
Zimmer, C. (2019, April 12). Sibling rivalry of sorts in a study of life in orbit (p. A20). The New York Times.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rabin, J.S. (2021). Behavioral Epigenetics: The Underpinnings of Political Psychology. In: Sinnott, J.D., Rabin, J.S. (eds) The Psychology of Political Behavior in a Time of Change. Identity in a Changing World. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38270-4_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38270-4_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-38269-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-38270-4
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)