The Human Intelligence Podcast The Truth About Polygenic Scores: What Your Genes Really Say About Intelligence | Yujing Lin
Nov 15, 2025
Yujing Lin, a doctoral researcher at King’s College London specializing in behavioral genetics, dives into her latest findings on polygenic scores. She explains how these scores predict traits like IQ and education by examining differences between siblings and unrelated individuals. The conversation unveils how socioeconomic status affects genetic predictions, and why adding genetic and family-level factors can refine forecasts. Lin also highlights the significance of real effects over biases, making her research vital for understanding intelligence in a modern context.
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What Polygenic Scores Actually Are
- Polygenic scores predict traits by combining many genetic variants into one predictor for individual differences.
- Yujing Lin emphasizes these scores are strong for cognitive and educational outcomes but not novel in concept.
Population Versus Within-Family Prediction
- Population prediction uses unrelated individuals while within-family prediction compares siblings' differences.
- Between-family effects capture familial background that population scores pick up but within-family designs do not.
Host Reveals A Family Connection
- Dr. Russell Warne shares a personal aside that he and his wife discovered they are ninth cousins.
- He uses it humorously to reflect on assortative mating and family relatedness.