CGS-authored

Americans, no doubt about it, are lousy when it comes to going to the polls. Since 1945, U.S. turnout has hovered around 48.3 percent, according to the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, which tracks such figures. Those statistics have had political scientists-and politicians for that matter-grappling for years about what sends people to the ballot box. Now a bunch of California researchers have a new theory: genes.

People with the right variant of a key gene could be 10 percent more likely to vote under certain circumstances, according to James H. Fowler and Christopher T. Dawes, two political scientists at the University of California, San Diego, and Laura A. Baker, a psychology professor at the University of Southern California. Their study says two key genes, MAOA and 5HTT, have been shown to have a strong influence on the serotonin system, which regulates fear, trust, and social interaction. Those with the most "efficient" variants of these genes-or the variants able to best regulate the metabolism of serotonin-are likely be more socially oriented, according to the authors. "Voting is...