No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Cognitive traits are more appropriate for genetic analysis than social outcomes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 September 2023
Abstract
The critique of the genetics of complex social outcomes is partly well-founded, insofar as social outcomes sometimes have unreliable relations with cognitive traits. But the correct conclusion is not to dismiss the entire field altogether. Rather, the implication is to redirect geneticists' attention to the stable cognitive phenotypes that are natural candidates for genetic analysis.
- Type
- Open Peer Commentary
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press
References
Demange, P. A., Malanchini, M., Mallard, T. T., Biroli, P., Cox, S. R., Grotzinger, A. D., … Nivard, M. G. (2021). Investigating the genetic architecture of noncognitive skills using GWAS-by-subtraction. Nature Genetics, 53(1), 35–44. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-00754-2CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ganna, A., Verweij, K. J. H., Nivard, M. G., Maier, R., Wedow, R., Busch, A. S., … Zietsch, B. P. (2019). Large-scale GWAS reveals insights into the genetic architecture of same-sex sexual behavior. Science (New York, N.Y.), 365(6456), eaat7693. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat7693CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Okbay, A., Wu, Y., Wang, N., Jayashankar, H., Bennett, M., Nehzati, S. M., … Young, A. I. (2022). Polygenic prediction of educational attainment within and between families from genome-wide association analyses in 3 million individuals. Nature Genetics, 54(4), 437–449. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-022-01016-zCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ramus, F. (2017). General intelligence is an emerging property, not an evolutionary puzzle. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 40, 43–44. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X1600176XCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ramus, F. (2022). Noncognitive nonsense. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/xzv4fCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Target article
Challenging the utility of polygenic scores for social science: Environmental confounding, downward causation, and unknown biology
Related commentaries (24)
Beware of the phony horserace between genes and environments
Burt uses a fallacious motte-and-bailey argument to dispute the value of genetics for social science
Cognitive traits are more appropriate for genetic analysis than social outcomes
Complex interactions confound any unitary approach to social phenomena, not just biological ones
Don't miss the chance to reap the fruits of recent advances in behavioral genetics
Downward causation and vertical pleiotropy
Genomics might not be the solution, but epistemic validity remains a challenge in the social sciences
GWASs and polygenic scores inherit all the old problems of heritability estimates
Increasing the use of functional and multimodal genetic data in social science research
Methodological question-begging about the causes of complex social traits
Misguided model of human behavior: Comment on C. H. Burt: “Challenging the utility of polygenic scores for social science…”
Often wrong, sometimes useful: Including polygenic scores in social science research
Polygenic risk scores cannot make their mark on psychiatry without considering epigenetics
Polygenic scores and social science
Polygenic scores ignore development and epigenetics, dramatically reducing their value
Polygenic scores, and the genome-wide association studies they derive from, will have difficulty identifying genes that predispose one to develop a social behavioral trait
Social scientists would do well to steer clear of polygenic scores
Taking a lifespan approach to polygenic scores
The challenges of sociogenomics make it more, not less, worthy of careful and innovative investigation
The failure of gene-centrism
The social stratification of population as a mechanism of downward causation
The value of sociogenomics in understanding genetic evolution in contemporary human populations
Tractable limitations of current polygenic scores do not excuse genetically confounded social science
Vertical pleiotropy explains the heritability of social science traits
Author response
Polygenic scores for social science: Clarification, consensus, and controversy