Genetic determinism rides again - a psychologist’s troubling claims about genes and behaviour

[Sly Saint]

Nathaniel Comfort questions a psychologist’s troubling claims about genes and behaviour.

25 September 2018

Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are Robert Plomin Allen Lane (2018)

It’s never a good time for another bout of genetic determinism, but it’s hard to imagine a worse one than this. Social inequality gapes, exacerbated by climate change, driving hostility towards immigrants and flares of militant racism. At such a juncture, yet another expression of the discredited, simplistic idea that genes alone control human nature seems particularly insidious.

And yet, here we are again with Blueprint, by educational psychologist Robert Plomin. Although Plomin frequently uses more civil, progressive language than did his predecessors, the book’s message is vintage genetic determinism: “DNA isn’t all that matters but it matters more than everything else put together”.

“Nice parents have nice children because they are all nice genetically.” And it’s not just any nucleic acid that matters; it is human chromosomal DNA. Sorry, microbiologists, epigeneticists, RNA experts, developmental biologists: you’re not part of Plomin’s picture.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06784-5

(not exactly related to this piece but I am reminded of Crawley saying that CFS is 'more genetically heritable in children')