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Gene-Environment Interplay in Twin Models

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2017

Brad Verhulst  and
Peter K. Hatemi
Brad Verhulst
Affiliation:
Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, 800 East Leigh Street, Biotech 1, Richmond, VA 23219 e-mail: brad.verhulst@gmail.com
Peter K. Hatemi*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Microbiology and Biochemistry, Pennsylvania State University, 307 Pond Lab, University Park, PA 16802
*
e-mail: phatemi@gmail.com (corresponding author)
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Abstract

In this article, we respond to Shultziner's critique that argues that identical twins are more alike not because of genetic similarity, but because they select into more similar environments and respond to stimuli in comparable ways, and that these effects bias twin model estimates to such an extent that they are invalid. The essay further argues that the theory and methods that undergird twin models, as well as the empirical studies which rely upon them, are unaware of these potential biases. We correct this and other misunderstandings in the essay and find that gene-environment (GE) interplay is a well-articulated concept in behavior genetics and political science, operationalized as gene-environment correlation and gene-environment interaction. Both are incorporated into interpretations of the classical twin design (CTD) and estimated in numerous empirical studies through extensions of the CTD. We then conduct simulations to quantify the influence of GE interplay on estimates from the CTD. Due to the criticism's mischaracterization of the CTD and GE interplay, combined with the absence of any empirical evidence to counter what is presented in the extant literature and this article, we conclude that the critique does not enhance our understanding of the processes that drive political traits, genetic or otherwise.

Type
Research Article
Information
Political Analysis , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , Summer 2013 , pp. 368 - 389
Copyright
Copyright © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Political Methodology 

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Footnotes

Authors' note: Supplementary materials for this article are available on the Political Analysis Web site. Replication data for this article is available at http://dvn.iq.harvard.edu/dvn/dv/pan.

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