Using a Deliberative Poll on breast cancer screening to assess and improve the decision quality of laypeople.

Balancing the benefits and harms of mammography screening is difficult and involves a value judgement. Screening is both a medical and a social intervention, therefore public opinion could be considered when deciding if mammography screening programmes should be implemented and continued. Opinion polls have revealed high levels of public enthusiasm for cancer screening, however, the public tends to overestimate the benefits and underestimate the harms.

Estimating disability prevalence and disability-related inequalities: Does the choice of measure matter?

Rationale: Different measures for quantifying the percentage of people with a disability in surveys result in diverging estimates of prevalence and disability-related inequalities. Thus understanding the implications of using different disability measures is of vital policy importance. This study is the first to investigate the within-survey variation in disability prevalence based on two internationally recognized measures: the Washington Group Short Set (WGSS) and the Global Activity Limitation Indicator (GALI).

Genetic predictors of educational attainment and intelligence test performance predict voter turnout.

Although the genetic influence on voter turnout is substantial (typically 40-50%), the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Across the social sciences, research suggests that 'resources for politics' (as indexed notably by educational attainment and intelligence test performance) constitute a central cluster of factors that predict electoral participation. Educational attainment and intelligence test performance are heritable.