Dr. Steven Heine on Genetic Fatalism
Dr. Steven Heine, one of the co-authors of the study that found that women’s performance on math tests were affected by their perceived innate genetic ability, has an editorial in the Boston Globe.
…as our research suggests, people often respond in rather fatalistic ways when they hear about genetic causes. We believe this is because most people have quite erroneous conceptions of how genes influence behavior. They seem to conceive of genes as something like ingredients in a recipe. Just as an extra cup of sugar will necessarily make the cake sweeter, people think that having a gene for obesity will inevitably make them heavier. However, genes are not the ingredients of our selves. The expressions of genes are governed by experiences and interactions with other genes, and they guide behaviors in probabilistic ways. Furthermore, genes can influence the ways we interact with, and are thus shaped by, our environments. The ways genes affect behavior are far more complicated than the ways that are typically summarized in university press releases or newspaper articles. In the end, these simplified stories can misrepresent genetic explanations for behaviors.
How do you think the idea of genetic determinism affects the way you think about yourself?
Technorati Tags: fate, genetics, genes, dna, diseases, illness, health, steven heine
It is very easy, even for me, to get caught up in the “its in my genes” mentality. It is very subtle and is so pervasive in our society.
The sad part is that genetic fatalism is almost always in favor of the “negative” genes, like obesity, or bad (or no) hair, or an ugly nose. You rarely hear someone say how they were destined to be smart or successful because of their genes. That is usually attributed to hard work.
Thanks for the quote. It is a great reminder not to fall into the genetic fatalism trap!
Dr. Heine’s study and his editorial should be a call to action to counter the phenomenon of genetic determinism, or genetic fatalism. While we shouldn’t lose sight of the significance of investigating and understanding the human genome, people need to be made aware (by the popular press) of the complexity of expression and the influence of environmental factors. And I think that this will come, the more we discover about expression (ah, the Nature-Nurture pendulum), but in the meantime, awareness of our tendencies to view ourselves and others in the light of genetic determinism needs to be acknowledged, and its social consequences watched carefully.
Rebecca: That is such a interesting observation. I’m guessing there are cultural differences as well. Chinese people often attribute intelligence to genes. Having a smart and successful mother and father is considered a great genetic advantage in life!
Emilie: We definitely need to push back when genetic determinism tries to lead us down a negative-thinking path.
“Having a smart and successful mother and father is considered a great genetic advantage in life!”
So I am sure we can expect great things from “little Lei”!
Rebecca: Ahhhh!! The pressure!!!!!