Rafael Ahlskog
Biographic Data
| ID | 1753614 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rafael Ahlskog |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rafael |
| FAMILY NAME | Ahlskog |
| SIGNATURE | AHLSKOG R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Uppsala University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4327-447X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 40 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Sibling-sex effects on voter turnout
In this study, we examine how one aspect of sibling relations—the sex of one’s sibling—affects voter participation. To credibly identify causal effects, we focus on spillover from having a younger sibling of a given sex. Drawing on Swedish population registers and validated turnout data from seven national and European Parliament elections between 1982 and 2022, we show that having a same-sex sibling increases the likelihood of voting among women…
Rallied by thy neighbor: How minority spatial concentration increases voter turnout
Spatial concentration is often thought to increase political engagement among minority groups by fostering intragroup contact and strengthening political group consciousness. This study evaluates this relationship with a focus on lesbians, gays, and bisexuals (LGB), extending existing research beyond ethnoracial minorities. Using Swedish population-wide register data, we identify over 20,000 LGB individuals and nearly 8 million comparable heteros…
The Genetics of Political Participation: Leveraging Polygenic Indices to Advance Political Behavior Research
Previous research has found that political traits have some degree of genetic basis, but researchers have had less success unpacking the relationship between genes and political behavior. We propose an approach for examining this relationship that can overcome many of the limitations of previous research: polygenic indices (PGIs). PGIs are DNA-based individual-level variables that capture the genetic propensity to exhibit a given trait. We begin …
Do the rich ditch politics? Evidence from Sweden
The world has seen a massive increase in wealth and wealth inequality over the last decades. Given the skew in policy making towards the preferences of the wealthy, this raises the question of how individual wealth affects political participation. Approaching this question empirically is complicated by the fact that random variation in wealth is rare, and many factors that can bias the estimation of the relationship between wealth and participati…
Associations between common genetic variants and income provide insights about the socio-economic health gradient
We conducted a genome-wide association study on income among individuals of European descent ( N = 668,288) to investigate the relationship between socio-economic status and health disparities. We identified 162 genomic loci associated with a common genetic factor underlying various income measures, all with small effect sizes (the Income Factor). Our polygenic index captures 1–5% of income variance, with only one fourth due to direct genetic eff…
Class, genes, and rationality: A gene–environment interaction approach to ideology
Variation in political preferences is increasingly understood to stem from both environmental influences and genetics. Research in political psychology has argued that a pathway for genetic effects on ideology is via cognitive performance, showing a sizable genetic overlap between the traits. Yet the link between actual trait cognitive performance and economic conservatism is itself highly ambiguous, with both positive, null, and negative estimat…
From Globalization to Isolation: Exposure to the 2008 Financial Crisis and Three Dimensions of Liberal Attitudes in a Swedish Twin Design
This study investigates the link between non-liberal attitudes and adverse exposure to market disturbances during the 2008 global financial crisis, drawing from the premise that anti-liberal sentiments among Western voters stem from economic distress. We delve into three facets of liberal ideology in a Swedish sample: economic liberalism, liberal multiculturalism and liberal internationalism. Using variation in crisis exposure within identical tw…
Genetics of monozygotic twins reveals the impact of environmental sensitivity on psychiatric and neurodevelopmental phenotypes
Individual sensitivity to environmental exposures may be genetically influenced. This genotype-by-environment interplay implies differences in phenotypic variance across genotypes, but these variants have proven challenging to detect. Genome-wide association studies of monozygotic twin differences are conducted through family-based variance analyses, which are more robust to the systemic biases that impact population-based methods. We combined da…
It Matters What and Where We Measure: Education and Ideology in a Swedish Twin Design
Research on the link between education and political ideology is likely affected by biases common in conventional observational methods. A study by Rasmussen et al. (2021) addresses this problem by examining social and economic ideology in a Danish discordant twin design, finding that education shows positive causal effects on economic, but not social, conservatism. In this paper, I provide a set of replications of these results using a dataset o…
Extraversion Probably Does Not Cause Political Participation. Evidence from Two Genetically Informed Designs
A substantial literature in political psychology has emphasized the importance of personality traits for understanding differences in political participation. One such trait is extraversion. However, the causal status of this relationship is complicated by a number of issues, not least genetic confounding stemming from the heritability of both personality traits and political participation. This study confirms the well‐established naive relations…
Quantifying Bias from Measurable and Unmeasurable Confounders Across Three Domains of Individual Determinants of Political Preferences
A core part of political research is to identify how political preferences are shaped. The nature of these questions is such that robust causal identification is often difficult to achieve, and we are not seldom stuck with observational methods that we know have limited causal validity. The purpose of this paper is to measure the magnitude of bias stemming from both measurable and unmeasurable confounders across three broad domains of individual …
Polygenic prediction of educational attainment within and between families from genome-wide association analyses in 3 million individuals
We conduct a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of educational attainment (EA) in a sample of ~3 million individuals and identify 3,952 approximately uncorrelated genome-wide-significant single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). A genome-wide polygenic predictor, or polygenic index (PGI), explains 12–16% of EA variance and contributes to risk prediction for ten diseases. Direct effects (i.e., controlling for parental PGIs) explain roughly half th…
Uncovering the Source of Patrimonial Voting: Evidence from Swedish Twin Pairs
The boom in wealth inequality seen in recent decades has generated a steep rise in scholarly interest in both the drivers and the consequences of the wealth gap. In political science, a pertinent question regards the political behavior across the wealth spectrum. A common argument is that the wealthy practice patrimonial voting, i.e. voting for right-wing parties to maximize returns on their assets. While this pattern is descriptively well docume…
Persistent Inequalities: The Origins of Intergenerational Associations in Voter Turnout
We use population-wide Swedish data with information on adopted children's biological and adoptive parents to assess the importance of prebirth factors (measured by biological parents' voting) and postbirth socialization factors (as captured by adoptive parents' voting) for generating intergenerational associations in voter turnout. We find that both prebirth and postbirth factors explain the parent-child similarity in turnout behavior. More impo…
Education and voter turnout revisited: Evidence from a Swedish twin sample with validated turnout data
The association between education and voter turnout is well-established in almost a century of research. The causal status of this correlation, however, is still subject to debate. Results in the previous literature differ substantially, and this may reflect both methodological differences and heterogeneous effects across populations or types of elections. This study addresses the question using a discordant twin design and variance decomposition…
Education and voter turnout revisited: Evidence from a Swedish twin sample with validated turnout data
The association between education and voter turnout is well-established in almost a century of research. The causal status of this correlation, however, is still subject to debate. Results in the previous literature differ substantially, and this may reflect both methodological differences and heterogeneous effects across populations or types of elections. This study addresses the question using a discordant twin design and variance decomposition…
Uncovering the Source of Patrimonial Voting: Evidence from Swedish Twin Pairs
The boom in wealth inequality seen in recent decades has generated a steep rise in scholarly interest in both the drivers and the consequences of the wealth gap. In political science, a pertinent question regards the political behavior across the wealth spectrum. A common argument is that the wealthy practice patrimonial voting, i.e. voting for right-wing parties to maximize returns on their assets. While this pattern is descriptively well docume…
Persistent Inequalities: The Origins of Intergenerational Associations in Voter Turnout
We use population-wide Swedish data with information on adopted children's biological and adoptive parents to assess the importance of prebirth factors (measured by biological parents' voting) and postbirth socialization factors (as captured by adoptive parents' voting) for generating intergenerational associations in voter turnout. We find that both prebirth and postbirth factors explain the parent-child similarity in turnout behavior. More impo…
Quantifying Bias from Measurable and Unmeasurable Confounders Across Three Domains of Individual Determinants of Political Preferences
A core part of political research is to identify how political preferences are shaped. The nature of these questions is such that robust causal identification is often difficult to achieve, and we are not seldom stuck with observational methods that we know have limited causal validity. The purpose of this paper is to measure the magnitude of bias stemming from both measurable and unmeasurable confounders across three broad domains of individual …
The Genetics of Political Participation: Leveraging Polygenic Indices to Advance Political Behavior Research
Previous research has found that political traits have some degree of genetic basis, but researchers have had less success unpacking the relationship between genes and political behavior. We propose an approach for examining this relationship that can overcome many of the limitations of previous research: polygenic indices (PGIs). PGIs are DNA-based individual-level variables that capture the genetic propensity to exhibit a given trait. We begin …
Associations between common genetic variants and income provide insights about the socio-economic health gradient
We conducted a genome-wide association study on income among individuals of European descent ( N = 668,288) to investigate the relationship between socio-economic status and health disparities. We identified 162 genomic loci associated with a common genetic factor underlying various income measures, all with small effect sizes (the Income Factor). Our polygenic index captures 1–5% of income variance, with only one fourth due to direct genetic eff…
Class, genes, and rationality: A gene–environment interaction approach to ideology
Variation in political preferences is increasingly understood to stem from both environmental influences and genetics. Research in political psychology has argued that a pathway for genetic effects on ideology is via cognitive performance, showing a sizable genetic overlap between the traits. Yet the link between actual trait cognitive performance and economic conservatism is itself highly ambiguous, with both positive, null, and negative estimat…
It Matters What and Where We Measure: Education and Ideology in a Swedish Twin Design
Research on the link between education and political ideology is likely affected by biases common in conventional observational methods. A study by Rasmussen et al. (2021) addresses this problem by examining social and economic ideology in a Danish discordant twin design, finding that education shows positive causal effects on economic, but not social, conservatism. In this paper, I provide a set of replications of these results using a dataset o…
Extraversion Probably Does Not Cause Political Participation. Evidence from Two Genetically Informed Designs
A substantial literature in political psychology has emphasized the importance of personality traits for understanding differences in political participation. One such trait is extraversion. However, the causal status of this relationship is complicated by a number of issues, not least genetic confounding stemming from the heritability of both personality traits and political participation. This study confirms the well‐established naive relations…
Education and voter turnout revisited: Evidence from a Swedish twin sample with validated turnout data
The association between education and voter turnout is well-established in almost a century of research. The causal status of this correlation, however, is still subject to debate. Results in the previous literature differ substantially, and this may reflect both methodological differences and heterogeneous effects across populations or types of elections. This study addresses the question using a discordant twin design and variance decomposition…
Polygenic prediction of educational attainment within and between families from genome-wide association analyses in 3 million individuals
We conduct a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of educational attainment (EA) in a sample of ~3 million individuals and identify 3,952 approximately uncorrelated genome-wide-significant single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). A genome-wide polygenic predictor, or polygenic index (PGI), explains 12–16% of EA variance and contributes to risk prediction for ten diseases. Direct effects (i.e., controlling for parental PGIs) explain roughly half th…
Uncovering the Source of Patrimonial Voting: Evidence from Swedish Twin Pairs
The boom in wealth inequality seen in recent decades has generated a steep rise in scholarly interest in both the drivers and the consequences of the wealth gap. In political science, a pertinent question regards the political behavior across the wealth spectrum. A common argument is that the wealthy practice patrimonial voting, i.e. voting for right-wing parties to maximize returns on their assets. While this pattern is descriptively well docume…
Persistent Inequalities: The Origins of Intergenerational Associations in Voter Turnout
We use population-wide Swedish data with information on adopted children's biological and adoptive parents to assess the importance of prebirth factors (measured by biological parents' voting) and postbirth socialization factors (as captured by adoptive parents' voting) for generating intergenerational associations in voter turnout. We find that both prebirth and postbirth factors explain the parent-child similarity in turnout behavior. More impo…
It Matters What and Where We Measure: Education and Ideology in a Swedish Twin Design
Research on the link between education and political ideology is likely affected by biases common in conventional observational methods. A study by Rasmussen et al. (2021) addresses this problem by examining social and economic ideology in a Danish discordant twin design, finding that education shows positive causal effects on economic, but not social, conservatism. In this paper, I provide a set of replications of these results using a dataset o…
Extraversion Probably Does Not Cause Political Participation. Evidence from Two Genetically Informed Designs
A substantial literature in political psychology has emphasized the importance of personality traits for understanding differences in political participation. One such trait is extraversion. However, the causal status of this relationship is complicated by a number of issues, not least genetic confounding stemming from the heritability of both personality traits and political participation. This study confirms the well‐established naive relations…
Quantifying Bias from Measurable and Unmeasurable Confounders Across Three Domains of Individual Determinants of Political Preferences
A core part of political research is to identify how political preferences are shaped. The nature of these questions is such that robust causal identification is often difficult to achieve, and we are not seldom stuck with observational methods that we know have limited causal validity. The purpose of this paper is to measure the magnitude of bias stemming from both measurable and unmeasurable confounders across three broad domains of individual …
Do the rich ditch politics? Evidence from Sweden
The world has seen a massive increase in wealth and wealth inequality over the last decades. Given the skew in policy making towards the preferences of the wealthy, this raises the question of how individual wealth affects political participation. Approaching this question empirically is complicated by the fact that random variation in wealth is rare, and many factors that can bias the estimation of the relationship between wealth and participati…
Associations between common genetic variants and income provide insights about the socio-economic health gradient
We conducted a genome-wide association study on income among individuals of European descent ( N = 668,288) to investigate the relationship between socio-economic status and health disparities. We identified 162 genomic loci associated with a common genetic factor underlying various income measures, all with small effect sizes (the Income Factor). Our polygenic index captures 1–5% of income variance, with only one fourth due to direct genetic eff…
Class, genes, and rationality: A gene–environment interaction approach to ideology
Variation in political preferences is increasingly understood to stem from both environmental influences and genetics. Research in political psychology has argued that a pathway for genetic effects on ideology is via cognitive performance, showing a sizable genetic overlap between the traits. Yet the link between actual trait cognitive performance and economic conservatism is itself highly ambiguous, with both positive, null, and negative estimat…
From Globalization to Isolation: Exposure to the 2008 Financial Crisis and Three Dimensions of Liberal Attitudes in a Swedish Twin Design
This study investigates the link between non-liberal attitudes and adverse exposure to market disturbances during the 2008 global financial crisis, drawing from the premise that anti-liberal sentiments among Western voters stem from economic distress. We delve into three facets of liberal ideology in a Swedish sample: economic liberalism, liberal multiculturalism and liberal internationalism. Using variation in crisis exposure within identical tw…
Genetics of monozygotic twins reveals the impact of environmental sensitivity on psychiatric and neurodevelopmental phenotypes
Individual sensitivity to environmental exposures may be genetically influenced. This genotype-by-environment interplay implies differences in phenotypic variance across genotypes, but these variants have proven challenging to detect. Genome-wide association studies of monozygotic twin differences are conducted through family-based variance analyses, which are more robust to the systemic biases that impact population-based methods. We combined da…
Sibling-sex effects on voter turnout
In this study, we examine how one aspect of sibling relations—the sex of one’s sibling—affects voter participation. To credibly identify causal effects, we focus on spillover from having a younger sibling of a given sex. Drawing on Swedish population registers and validated turnout data from seven national and European Parliament elections between 1982 and 2022, we show that having a same-sex sibling increases the likelihood of voting among women…
Rallied by thy neighbor: How minority spatial concentration increases voter turnout
Spatial concentration is often thought to increase political engagement among minority groups by fostering intragroup contact and strengthening political group consciousness. This study evaluates this relationship with a focus on lesbians, gays, and bisexuals (LGB), extending existing research beyond ethnoracial minorities. Using Swedish population-wide register data, we identify over 20,000 LGB individuals and nearly 8 million comparable heteros…
The Genetics of Political Participation: Leveraging Polygenic Indices to Advance Political Behavior Research
Previous research has found that political traits have some degree of genetic basis, but researchers have had less success unpacking the relationship between genes and political behavior. We propose an approach for examining this relationship that can overcome many of the limitations of previous research: polygenic indices (PGIs). PGIs are DNA-based individual-level variables that capture the genetic propensity to exhibit a given trait. We begin …
Electoral Systems and Political Participation (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Politics (8 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Biology (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Social Psychology (6 works) · Social Psychology (6 works) · Sociology (6 works)