Is It a One % Effect?

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M, i really want to think about that whole picture both, you know, what can we understand about why some people are born with a higher risk of becoming so diffrent than other people. And then how does society act on those embodid differences in ways that create these forms of social inequality? M, from a scientific perspective, it seems like such a strange thing to at first, maybe a counter intrudive thing to connect denate income, right? Like, income is clearly social, right? But if we observe genetic patterns that are corrulated with income, what is that telling us about about which embodied characteristics and which skills are being rewarded and which aren't in the way

It's pretty clear that our genes affect, though they don't completely determine, who we grow up to be; children’s physical and mental characteristics are not completely unrelated to those of their parents. But this relationship has been widely abused throughout history to underwrite racist and sexist ideas. So there has been a counter-reaction in the direction of removing any consideration of genetic heritage from how we understand people. Kathryn Paige Harden argues in favor of a more nuanced view: DNA does matter, we can clearly measure some of its effects, and understanding those effects is a crucial tool in fighting discrimination and making the world a more equitable place.

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Kathryn Paige Harden received her Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Virginia. She is currently a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the leader of the Developmental Behavior Genetics Lab and co-director of the Texas Twin Project. She was the recipient of the Award for Distinguished Scientific Early Career Contributions to Psychology from the American Psychological Association. Her new book is The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality.

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