Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-xfwgj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-15T19:38:55.588Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Misguided model of human behavior: Comment on C. H. Burt: “Challenging the utility of polygenic scores for social science…”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 September 2023

Ken Richardson Open the ORCID record for Ken Richardson [Opens in a new window]
Ken Richardson*
Affiliation:
Berwick upon Tweed, UK k.richardson@mac.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This commentary emphasizes two problem areas mentioned by Burt. First, that within-family designs do not eradicate stratification confounds. Second, that the linear/additive model of genetic causes of form and variation is not supported by recent progress in molecular biology. It concludes with an appeal for a (biologically and psychologically) more realistic model of such causes.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 46 , 2023 , e225
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baverstock, K. (2021). The gene: An appraisal. Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, 164, 46–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2021.04.005CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Biddle, J. W., Martinez-Corral, R., Wong, F., & Gunawardena, J. (2021). Allosteric conformational ensembles have unlimited capacity for integrating information. eLife, 10, e65498. doi: 10.7554/eLife.65498CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fletcher, J. (2021). Backdoor to a dead end: A review essay. Population and Development Review, 48, 253–258. https://doi.org/10.1111/padr.12487CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, J. C. (2017). No longer invisible: Understanding the psychosocial impact of skin color stratification in the lives of African American women. Health & Social Work, 42, 71–78, https://doi.org/10.1093/hsw/hlx001CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harden, K. P. (2021). The genetic lottery: Why DNA matters for social equality. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Isbel, L., Grand, R. S., & Schübeler, D. (2022). Generating specificity in genome regulation through transcription factor sensitivity to chromatin. Nature Reviews Genetics, 23(12), 728–740. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-022-00512-6CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kempthorne, O. (1978). Logical, epistemological and statistical aspects of nature–nurture data interpretation. Biometrics, 34(1), 1–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kraft, P., Kraft, B., Hagen, T., & Espeseth, T. (2022). Subjective socioeconomic status, cognitive abilities, and personal control: Associations with health behaviours. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 784758. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.784758CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lyon, P., Keijzer, F., Arendt, D., & Levin, M. (2021). Reframing cognition: Getting down to biological basics. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B, 376, 20190750. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0750CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Madole, J. W., & Harden, K. P. (2023). Building causal knowledge in behavior genetics. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X22000681Google Scholar
Monroe, J. G., Srikant, T., Carbonell-Bejerano, P., Becker, C., Lensink, M., Exposito-Alonso, M., … Weigel, D. (2022). Mutation bias reflects natural selection in Arabidopsis thaliana. Nature, 602, 101–105. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04269-6CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Noble, D. (2016). Dance to the tune of life: Biological relativity. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Plomin, R. (2019). Blueprint: How DNA makes us who we are. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Richardson, K. (2020). In the light of the environment: Evolution through biogrammars not programmers. Biological Theory, 15, 212e222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richardson, K. (2021). Genes and knowledge: Response to Baverstock. Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, 167, 12–17. doi: 10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2021.10.003CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Richardson, K. (2022). Understanding intelligence. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Richardson, K., & Norgate, S. H. (2015). Does IQ really predict job performance? Applied Developmental Science, 19, 153–169.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shapiro, J. A. (2013). How life changes itself: The read-write (RW) genome. Physics of Life Reviews, 10, 287–323.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shapiro, J. A. (2020). All living cells are cognitive. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 564, 134–149.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wagner, A., & Wright, J. (2007). Alternative routes and mutational robustness in complex regulatory networks. BioSystems, 88, 163–172.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Watanabe, K., Stringer, S., Frei, O., Mirkov, M. U., de Leeuw, C., Polderman, T. J. C., … Posthuma, D. (2019). A global overview of pleiotropy and genetic architecture in complex traits. Nature Genetics, 51, 1339–1348. doi: 10.1038/s41588-019-0481-0CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wilkinson, R., & Pickett, K. (2018). The inner level. Allen Lane.Google Scholar
Wright, C. J., Smith, C. W. J., & Jiggins, C. D. (2022). Alternative splicing as a source of phenotypic diversity. Nature Reviews Genetics, 23, 697–710. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-022-00514-4CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed