A Genetically Informed Study of Mobility Pattern with the Micro-Context

• In Event: Research Design Lightning Round

Abstract

Do native people move their home according to local presence of minorities and immigrants? Despite extensive research on the dynamics of social cohesion and segregation in increasingly diverse societies, there is little systematic account for native people’s behavioural reactions (mobility) to social diversity and the underpinnings. Theories in political research, social psychology, and evolution often assume that diversity is a complex situation for most people to approach, but this does not exactly fit observations in reality. Studying individual mobility pattern also has multiple empirical challenges: measurements on contexts are often not precise enough to reflect people’s real contexts; there are potential alternative explanations for contextual diversity such as poverty; and often the time span for mobility trajectory is limited. In light of these research gaps, this study will use rich Swedish register data on individual locations to develop novel measurements for contextual diversity and longitudinal mobility pattern, and investigate its attitudinal and genetic underpinnings for mobility patterns with molecular genetic data.

Author

• Qinya Feng, Uppsala University