Skip to main content

Man Is by Nature a Political Animal

Evolution, Biology, and Politics

In Man Is by Nature a Political Animal, Peter K. Hatemi and Rose McDermott bring together a diverse group of contributors to examine the ways in which evolutionary theory and biological research are increasingly informing analyses of political behavior. Focusing on the theoretical, methodological, and empirical frameworks of a variety of biological approaches to political attitudes and preferences, the authors consider a wide range of topics, including the comparative basis of political behavior, the utility of formal modeling informed by evolutionary theory, the genetic bases of attitudes and behaviors, psychophysiological methods and research, and the wealth of insight generated by recent research on the human brain. Through this approach, the book reveals the biological bases of many previously unexplained variances within the extant models of political behavior.
 
The diversity of methods discussed and variety of issues examined here will make this book of great interest to students and scholars seeking a comprehensive overview of this emerging approach to the study of politics and behavior.

352 pages | 20 line drawings, 27 tables | 6 x 9 | © 2011

Biological Sciences: Evolutionary Biology

Political Science: Political Behavior and Public Opinion

Sociology: Methodology, Statistics, and Mathematical Sociology

Reviews

“A major paradigmatic contribution relevant well beyond political science, Man Is by Nature a Political Animal provides a primer of what has been happening at the intersection of political science, biology, and cognitive neuroscience for the past twenty years. Hatemi and McDermott have put together a formidable group of the most creative scholars in the discipline, each of whom has attempted to show how the various methodologies and theoretical frameworks operate.”

John M. Orbell, University of Oregon

“In Man Is by Nature a Political Animal, Hatemi and McDermott present the first serious attempt to provide a systematic overview of new developments [in political psychology] in a book that may appeal to both scholars and general readers. They bring together the most up-to-date theoretical, methodological, and empirical frameworks and perspectives on political attitudes and behaviors, including evolutionary biology and psychology, genetics, physiology, and neuroscience. Their book calls for real crossdisciplinary work on political behavior that will resonate within intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary discourse. . . . Not only does this book contribute to the field in making its recent achievements and advances known to both scholars and the general public, but also, and perhaps more importantly, it goes a long way in guiding its future research.”

Political Psychology

Table of Contents

Foreword
James Druckman

Acknowledgments

Introduction
Peter K. Hatemi and Rose McDermott

1 Evolution as a Theory for Political Behavior
Peter K. Hatemi and Rose McDermott

2 Political Primates: What Other Primates Can Tell Us about the Evolutionary Roots of Our Own Political Behavior
Darby Proctor and Sarah Brosnan

3 Formal Evolutionary Modeling for Political Scientists
Oleg Smirnov and Tim Johnson

4 Modeling the Cultural and Biological Inheritance of Social and Political Behavior in Twins and Nuclear Families
Lindon J. Eaves, Peter K. Hatemi, Andrew C. Heath, and Nicholas G. Martin

5 Gene-Environment Interplay for the Study of Political Behaviors
Jason D. Boardman

6 Genes, Games, and Political Participation
James H. Fowler, Peter J. Loewen, Jaime Settle, and Christopher T. Dawes

7 The Mind-Body Connection: Psychophysiology as an Approach to Studying Political Attitudes and Behaviors
Kevin B. Smith and John R. Hibbing

8 Hormones and Politics
Rose McDermott

9 Testosterone and the Biology of Politics: Experimental Evidence from the 2008 Presidential Election
Coren L. Apicella and David A. Cesarini

10 From SCAN to Neuropolitics
Darren Schreiber

11 Conclusion
Peter K. Hatemi and Rose McDermott

Index
 

Be the first to know

Get the latest updates on new releases, special offers, and media highlights when you subscribe to our email lists!

Sign up here for updates about the Press