Interest in politics is important for a host of political behaviors and beliefs. Yet little is known about where political interest comes from. Most studies exploring the source of political interest focus on parental influences, economic status, and opportunity. Here, we investigate an alternative source: genetic transmission. Using two twin samples, one drawn from Denmark and the other from U...

This article considers the hypothesis that media-driven political interest shapes party identification, the timing of vote decisions, and electoral participation. To estimate the effect of media-driven political interest, we make a key distinction between political interest as a lifetime political orientation and political interest that rises and falls with the occurrence of noteworthy politica...

the spotlight once again on one of his most seminal works, The Concept of the Political, which he first published in 1927 in Germany. As perhaps the clearest, and thus most controversial distillation of his political thought, recent efforts to expound on the fuller meaning of the most salient ideas in this work are certainly worthy of attention. In the following essay it is my intention to more...

The topic of corruption has recently attracted a great deal of attention, yet there is still a lack of micro level empirical evidence regarding the determinants of corruption. Furthermore, the present literature has not investigated the effects of political interest on corruption despite the interesting potential of this link. We address these deficiencies by analyzing a cross-section of indivi...

People tend to prefer information sources that agree with their viewpoints, as predicted by the selective exposure theory, and to associate with people who are like them, a process known as homophily. Scholars raise fears that the combination of these factors can limit the diversity of viewpoints to which people are exposed, particularly when people find news through social network sites. In th...

Most Americans no longer live in traditional communities. Instead, they live in suburban subdivisions littered with shopping malls, swimming pools, recreation centers, and private security forces. But improved living conditions, extra services, communal spaces, and increased property values come at a cost: we are now more segregated than ever. And in our isolation, the public realm eviscerates,...