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Cultural evolutionary theory is not enough: Ambiguous culture, neglect of structure, and the absence of theory in behavior genetics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 September 2022

Callie H. Burt Open the ORCID record for Callie H. Burt [Opens in a new window]
Callie H. Burt*
Affiliation:
Department of Criminal Justice & Criminology, Georgia State University, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies & Center for Research on Interpersonal Violence (CRIV), Atlanta, GA 30303, USA. cburt@gsu.edu www.callieburt.org
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Abstract

Uchiyama et al. propose a unified model linking cultural evolutionary theory to behavior genetics (BG) to enhance generalizability, enrich explanation, and predict how social factors shape heritability estimates. A consideration of culture evolution is beneficial but insufficient for purpose. I submit that their proposed model is underdeveloped and their emphasis on heritability estimates misguided. I discuss their ambiguous conception of culture, neglect of social structure, and the lack of a general theory in BG.

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Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 45 , 2022 , e157
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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