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614 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 6 (2007)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0614 and id is 1 raw text is: INTRODUCTION The Biology of Political Behavior: An Introduction By JOHN R. HIBBING and KEVIN B. SMITH A broad cross-section of the social sciences is increas- ingly turning to biology and evolutionary theory to help explain human behavior. Political science is a notable exception to this trend, even though there are sound conceptual reasons for expecting biological processes to play an important role in explaining political behavior. While agreeing with the conceptual arguments, the authors believe original empirical research is the most persuasive means of convincing political science to incorporate biology in explanations of political behav- ior. Techniques developed in neuroscience, behavioral genetics, agent-based simulation, experimental eco- nomics, and other fields offer exciting research oppor- tunities to explore questions of central interest to political scientists. The research presented in this vol- ume provides examples of replicable, empirical evi- dence that political beliefs and behavior are a product of biological as well as environmental factors. Keywords: neuroscience; genetics; neurotransmitter; evolution; interdisciplinary Who we are and what we do is the product of environmental and biological factors. In the life sciences, this simple statement would be regarded as painfully obvious. In many parts of the social sciences, especially in political science, it is seen as peculiar, wrong, and even danger- ous. As a result, virtually the entire research agenda in political science is isolated from the vast biological knowledge base that has built up over the course of the past fifty years. Most John R. Hibbing is the Foundation Regents University Professor of Political Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. With Elizabeth Theiss-Morse, he is the author of Congress as Public Enemy as well as Stealth Democracy, both dealing with public attitudles toward government, governors, and governing. His recent work, primarily with John Alford but also with Kevin Smith and others, attempts to integrate biological concepts and the social sciences. Kevin B. Smith is a professor of political science at the University o f Nebraska-Lincoln. His research focuses on the application of evolutionary and biological mod- els to political behavior DOI: 10.1177/0002716207305471 ANNALS, AAPSS, 614, November 2007 6