The Biology of Political Decision Making

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingEntry for encyclopedia/dictionary

Abstract

The study of biology and politics is rapidly moving from being an isolated curiosity to being an integral part of the theories that political scientists propose. The necessity of adopting this interdisciplinary research philosophy will be increasingly apparent as political scientists seek to understand the precise mechanisms by which political decisions are made. To demonstrate this potential, scholars of biopolitics have addressed common misconceptions about biopolitics research (i.e., the nature-nurture dichotomy and biological determinism) and used different methods to shed light on political decision making since the turn of the 21st century—including methods drawn from evolutionary psychology, genomics, neuroscience, psychophysiology, and endocrinology. The field has already come far in its understanding of the biology of political decision making, and several key findings have emerged in biopolitical studies of political belief systems, attitudes, and behaviors. This area of research sheds light on the proximate and ultimate causes of political cognition and elucidates some of the ways in which human biology shapes both the human universals that make politics possible and the human diversity that provides it with such dynamism. Furthermore, three emerging areas of biopolitics research that anticipate the promise of a biologically informed political science are research into gene-environment interplay, research into the political causes and consequences of variation in human microbiomes, and research that integrates chronobiology—the study of the biological rhythms that regulate many aspects of life, including sleep—into the study of political decision making.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationOxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics
PublisherOxford University Press
ISBN (Electronic)9780190228637
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 31 2020

Keywords

  • biopolitics
  • hormones
  • psychophysiology
  • evolutionary psychology
  • neuroscience
  • genetics
  • political cognition
  • political decision making
  • political psychology

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The Biology of Political Decision Making'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this