French Jeffrey A, Smith Kevin B, Alford John R, Guck Adam, Birnie Andrew K, Hibbing John R
Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska at Omaha, 6001 Dodge Street, Omaha, NE 68182, USA.
Department of Political Science, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1400 R Street, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA.
Physiol Behav. 2014 Jun 22;133:61-7. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2014.05.004. Epub 2014 May 14.
Participation in electoral politics is affected by a host of social and demographics variables, but there is growing evidence that biological predispositions may also play a role in behavior related to political involvement. We examined the role of individual variation in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) stress axis parameters in explaining differences in self-reported and actual participation in political activities. Self-reported political activity, religious participation, and verified voting activity in U.S. national elections were collected from 105 participants, who were subsequently exposed to a standardized (nonpolitical) psychosocial stressor. We demonstrated that lower baseline salivary cortisol in the late afternoon was significantly associated with increased actual voting frequency in six national elections, but not with self-reported non-voting political activity. Baseline cortisol predicted significant variation in voting behavior above and beyond variation accounted for by traditional demographic variables (particularly age of participant in our sample). Participation in religious activity was weakly (and negatively) associated with baseline cortisol. Our results suggest that HPA-mediated characteristics of social, cognitive, and emotional processes may exert an influence on a trait as complex as voting behavior, and that cortisol is a better predictor of actual voting behavior, as opposed to self-reported political activity.
参与选举政治受到一系列社会和人口统计学变量的影响，但越来越多的证据表明，生物倾向也可能在与政治参与相关的行为中发挥作用。我们研究了下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺（HPA）应激轴参数的个体差异在解释自我报告的政治活动参与度和实际政治活动参与度差异方面所起的作用。我们从105名参与者那里收集了他们自我报告的政治活动、宗教参与情况以及在美国全国选举中的核实投票活动，随后让这些参与者接触一个标准化的（非政治性的）心理社会应激源。我们发现，下午晚些时候较低的基线唾液皮质醇水平与在六次全国选举中实际投票频率的增加显著相关，但与自我报告的非投票政治活动无关。基线皮质醇水平在解释投票行为的显著差异方面，超出了传统人口统计学变量（尤其是我们样本中参与者的年龄）所能解释的范围。参与宗教活动与基线皮质醇水平呈微弱的（负）相关。我们的研究结果表明，HPA介导的社会、认知和情感过程特征可能会对像投票行为这样复杂的特质产生影响，而且与自我报告的政治活动相比，皮质醇是实际投票行为的更好预测指标。
