ArticleNature human behaviour2021
Genetic predictors of educational attainment and intelligence test performance predict voter turnout.
Article in Nature human behaviour, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Wildfire exposure and political participation in Africa.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Gene-environment pathways to cognitive intelligence and psychotic-like experiences in children.eLife · 2024Article
- Genetic and epidemiological analyses of infection load and its relationship with psychiatric disorders.Epidemiology and infection · 2023Article
- Genetic predictors of cultural values variation between societies.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- A polygenic score for educational attainment partially predicts voter turnout.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- More thanIntelligenceArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Although the genetic influence on voter turnout is substantial (typically 40-50%), the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Across the social sciences, research suggests that 'resources for politics' (as indexed notably by educational attainment and intelligence test performance) constitute a central cluster of factors that predict electoral participation. Educational attainment and intelligence test performance are heritable. This suggests that the genotypes that enhance these phenotypes could positively predict turnout. To test this, we conduct a genome-wide complex trait analysis of individual-level turnout. We use two samples from the Danish iPSYCH case-cohort study, including a nationally representative sample as well as a sample of individuals who are particularly vulnerable to political alienation due to psychiatric conditions (n = 13,884 and n = 33,062, respectively). Using validated individual-level turnout data from the administrative records at the polling station, genetic correlations and Mendelian randomization, we show that there is a substantial genetic overlap between voter turnout and both educational attainment and intelligence test performance.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.