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margin: 0 0 0.5em 0.5em; text-align:left; border: 1px solid #009955; width:175px;"> <tbody><tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; text-align:center; color:White; background-color:#009955"><b>Style over substance</b><br /><a href="/wiki/Pseudoscience" title="Pseudoscience"><font size="4" color="White"><b>Pseudoscience</b></font></a> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="background-color:#CCEADD;" align="center"><a href="/wiki/Category:Pseudoscience" title="Category:Pseudoscience"><img alt="Icon pseudoscience.svg" src="/w/images/thumb/7/7a/Icon_pseudoscience.svg/100px-Icon_pseudoscience.svg.png" decoding="async" width="100" height="100" srcset="/w/images/thumb/7/7a/Icon_pseudoscience.svg/150px-Icon_pseudoscience.svg.png 1.5x, /w/images/thumb/7/7a/Icon_pseudoscience.svg/200px-Icon_pseudoscience.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="200" data-file-height="200" /></a> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; color:White; background-color:#009955; text-align:center;"><b>Popular <a href="/wiki/List_of_pseudosciences" title="List of pseudosciences"><font color="white">pseudosciences</font></a></b> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; background-color:#CCEADD;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Alternative_medicine" title="Alternative medicine">Alternative medicine</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Creationism" title="Creationism">Creationism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Racialism" title="Racialism">Racialism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Pseudopsychology" title="Pseudopsychology">Pseudopsychology</a></li></ul> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; color:White; background-color:#009955; text-align:center;"><b><a href="/wiki/Category:Pseudoscience" title="Category:Pseudoscience"><font color="white">Random examples</font></a></b> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; background-color:#CCEADD;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Germ_theory_denialism" title="Germ theory denialism">Germ theory denialism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Generation_Rescue" title="Generation Rescue">Generation Rescue</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Naturopathy" title="Naturopathy">Naturopathy</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Fusion_woo" title="Fusion woo">Fusion woo</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Discovery_Channel" title="Discovery Channel">Discovery Channel</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Greenpeace" title="Greenpeace">Greenpeace</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Climategate" title="Climategate">Climategate</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Here_be_Dragons" title="Here be Dragons">Here be Dragons</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Graham_Hancock" title="Graham Hancock">Graham Hancock</a></li></ul> <div class="vte plainlinks" style="font-size:smaller; text-align:center;"><a href="/wiki/Template:Pseudosciencenav" title="Template:Pseudosciencenav">v</a> - <a href="/wiki/Template_talk:Pseudosciencenav" title="Template talk:Pseudosciencenav">t</a> - <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Pseudosciencenav&action=edit">e</a></div> </td></tr></tbody></table> <table style="margin: auto; border-collapse:collapse; border-style:none; background-color:transparent;" class="cquote"> <tbody><tr> <td><div style="padding:4px 50px;position:relative;"><span style="position:absolute;left:10px;top:-6px;z-index:1;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-weight:bold;color:#B2B7F2;font-size:36px">“</span><span style="position:absolute;right:10px;bottom:-20px;z-index:1;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-weight:bold;color:#B2B7F2;font-size:36px">”</span>Attempts to import biological theories into sociology, from social Darwinism of the 19<sup>th</sup> century to the race theories of the 20<sup>th</sup>, have a justifiably bad reputation.</div> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="padding:4px 10px 8px;font-size:smaller;line-height:1.6em;text-align:right;"><cite style="font-style:normal;position:relative;z-index:2">—John Maynard Smith<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1">[1]</a></sup></cite> </td></tr></tbody></table> <p><b>Biological determinism</b> (often shortened to "<b>bio-determinism</b>" and used synonymously with <b>biologism</b> or <b>genetic determinism</b>) is a common <a href="/wiki/Fallacy" class="mw-redirect" title="Fallacy">fallacy</a> that implies that biology does and should completely dictate human behavior or the behavior of a certain subset of humans, such as Black people or males. A frequent formulation is along the lines of, "Humans <a href="/wiki/Evolution" title="Evolution">evolved</a> to do this; it's <a href="/wiki/Naturalistic_fallacy" class="mw-redirect" title="Naturalistic fallacy">natural</a>." It is considered to be a form of <a href="/wiki/Pseudoscience" title="Pseudoscience">pseudoscience</a> or <a href="/wiki/Folk_science" title="Folk science">folk science</a>. </p><p>It is a fork of both the <a href="/wiki/Naturalistic_fallacy" class="mw-redirect" title="Naturalistic fallacy">naturalistic fallacy</a> (it <b>is</b> true that humans have biological differences, therefore there <b>ought</b> to be a difference in outcome) and the <a href="/wiki/Appeal_to_nature" title="Appeal to nature">appeal to nature</a> (it's <b>natural</b> for us to behave like this, so it's desirable to behave like this) when used as a normative. When used as a positive it is just factually wrong. </p><p>A large amount of scientific evidence has indicated that a great many human traits are influenced by both genes and non-genetic influences — although some traits, such as certain genetic diseases, are entirely genetically-determined. The opposite extreme to biological determinism is cultural determinism or "<a href="/wiki/Blank_slate" class="mw-redirect" title="Blank slate">blank slate</a>"-ism — the idea that genetics has <i>no</i> role in an individual's life. As just stated, this is also incorrect. Usually, "blank slate" believers do not seek to deny the genetic determination of, say, eye colour — so in practice, "blank slate"-ism is about human behaviour and psychology. </p> <div id="toc" class="toc" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="mw-toc-heading"><input type="checkbox" role="button" id="toctogglecheckbox" class="toctogglecheckbox" style="display:none" /><div class="toctitle" lang="en" dir="ltr"><h2 id="mw-toc-heading">Contents</h2><span class="toctogglespan"><label class="toctogglelabel" for="toctogglecheckbox"></label></span></div> <ul> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="#Examples"><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">Examples</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2"><a href="#Philosophical_problems_with_biological_determinism"><span class="tocnumber">2</span> <span class="toctext">Philosophical problems with biological determinism</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3"><a href="#Scientific_problems_with_biological_determinism"><span class="tocnumber">3</span> <span class="toctext">Scientific problems with biological determinism</span></a> <ul> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4"><a href="#Statistical_fallacies"><span class="tocnumber">3.1</span> <span class="toctext">Statistical fallacies</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-5"><a href="#A_.22gene_for.22_x"><span class="tocnumber">3.2</span> <span class="toctext">A "gene for" x</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-6"><a href="#Conflation_of_heritability_with_genetic_determination"><span class="tocnumber">3.3</span> <span class="toctext">Conflation of heritability with genetic determination</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-7"><a href="#The_myth_of_a_.22state_of_nature.22"><span class="tocnumber">3.4</span> <span class="toctext">The myth of a "state of nature"</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-8"><a href="#Recent_advances_in_biology"><span class="tocnumber">3.5</span> <span class="toctext">Recent advances in biology</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-9"><a href="#Essentialism"><span class="tocnumber">3.6</span> <span class="toctext">Essentialism</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-10"><a href="#Excessive_extrapolation"><span class="tocnumber">3.7</span> <span class="toctext">Excessive extrapolation</span></a></li> </ul> </li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-11"><a href="#History"><span class="tocnumber">4</span> <span class="toctext">History</span></a> <ul> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-12"><a href="#Pre-scientific"><span class="tocnumber">4.1</span> <span class="toctext">Pre-scientific</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-13"><a href="#European_imperialism"><span class="tocnumber">4.2</span> <span class="toctext">European imperialism</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-14"><a href="#The_19th_century_and_the_birth_of_social_Darwinism_and_eugenics"><span class="tocnumber">4.3</span> <span class="toctext">The 19<sup>th</sup> century and the birth of social Darwinism and eugenics</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-15"><a href="#Inter-war_and_post-war_period"><span class="tocnumber">4.4</span> <span class="toctext">Inter-war and post-war period</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-16"><a href="#Resurgence_of_biological_theories"><span class="tocnumber">4.5</span> <span class="toctext">Resurgence of biological theories</span></a></li> </ul> </li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-17"><a href="#Contemporary_biological_determinism"><span class="tocnumber">5</span> <span class="toctext">Contemporary biological determinism</span></a> <ul> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-18"><a href="#Gender_essentialism"><span class="tocnumber">5.1</span> <span class="toctext">Gender essentialism</span></a></li> </ul> </li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-19"><a href="#In_science_fiction"><span class="tocnumber">6</span> <span class="toctext">In science fiction</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-20"><a href="#As_basis_for_hereditary_social_class_and_monarchy"><span class="tocnumber">7</span> <span class="toctext">As basis for hereditary social class and monarchy</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-21"><a href="#See_also"><span class="tocnumber">8</span> <span class="toctext">See also</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-22"><a href="#External_links"><span class="tocnumber">9</span> <span class="toctext">External links</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-23"><a href="#References"><span class="tocnumber">10</span> <span class="toctext">References</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-24"><a href="#Notes"><span class="tocnumber">11</span> <span class="toctext">Notes</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-25"><a href="#References_2"><span class="tocnumber">12</span> <span class="toctext">References</span></a></li> </ul> </div> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Examples">Examples</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Biological_determinism&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Examples">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <ul><li>"<a href="/wiki/Women" class="mw-redirect" title="Women">Women</a> should <a href="/wiki/Kinder,_K%C3%BCche,_Kirche" title="Kinder, Küche, Kirche">remain in the home and raise children, not go out and work</a>. That's why they are the ones that can get pregnant and bear the children. It's the way it's supposed to be. <a href="/wiki/Fun:Sandwich#As_a_Taunt" title="Fun:Sandwich">Now get back in the kitchen and make me a goddamn sandwich.</a>"</li> <li>"Monogamy is silly — just look at the male penis! It's far bigger, proportionally, than the penis of any other primate, and the flared head is designed to scoop out the semen of competitors.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2">[2]</a></sup> We're not designed to have just one partner."</li> <li>"We can abuse animals any way we please — we're the ones who evolved the most, after all, because Nature wanted us in charge."</li></ul> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Philosophical_problems_with_biological_determinism">Philosophical problems with biological determinism</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Biological_determinism&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Philosophical problems with biological determinism">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <p>On the <a href="/wiki/Moral" class="mw-redirect" title="Moral">moral</a> level, this is a classic case of the <a href="/wiki/Naturalistic_fallacy" class="mw-redirect" title="Naturalistic fallacy">naturalistic fallacy</a>, the notion that what is "natural" is also what is moral or desirable. Biological determinism is also a violation of <a href="/wiki/Hume%27s_law" class="mw-redirect" title="Hume's law">Hume's law</a>; an "ought" cannot be derived from an "is." In this way, the problems with this approach should be immediately evident in the flawed reasoning underlying the idea. </p><p>However, the issue becomes more complex in the actual application of moral principles. Hume did not argue that facts have no bearing on <a href="/wiki/Moral" class="mw-redirect" title="Moral">moral</a> decisions, but that facts needed to be combined with an <a href="/wiki/Ethical" class="mw-redirect" title="Ethical">ethical</a> principle to be meaningful in making said decisions. Thus, a biological fact may have bearing on how we make decisions, but cannot ultimately decide our values. </p><p>The claim that biological determinism must not be true because of Hume's law itself is an <a href="/wiki/Argument_from_adverse_consequences" class="mw-redirect" title="Argument from adverse consequences">argument from adverse consequences</a>. No, 'is' does not entail 'ought'. What Hume's law actually suggests, assuming that some form of biological determinism is true, is that some biologically determined behaviors and drives may be morally wrong. It does not follow from this premise that those moral judgments are bad. But it does follow from this premise that certain forms of moral wrong are encouraged and sustained by biology. </p><p>If this is true, then biology sets limits on the practicality and enforceability of moral judgments that implicate biologically determined behaviors. There's a limit to how saintly we can ever become, set by animal nature. Certain moral ideals will always be only imperfectly achievable. People will never fully internalize these moral beliefs, and a constant level of violations can be expected. There will be ongoing costs of surveillance and enforcement to enforce morality on biology. This account resembles most human societies with formal <a href="/wiki/Law" title="Law">laws</a> and <a href="/wiki/Law_enforcement" title="Law enforcement">law enforcement</a>; it is a tragedy but not a disaster. But this situation, if true, puts human perfectibility out of reach and is galling to the inventors of <a href="/wiki/Utopia" title="Utopia">utopias</a>. </p><p>By this logic, some critics of biological determinism have argued that the naturalistic fallacy may sometimes be wrongly invoked to avoid ethical considerations of biological research.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3">[3]</a></sup> It can sometimes be difficult to parse out the crude nonsense of biological determinism from useful science. For example, people of sub-Saharan <a href="/wiki/Africa" title="Africa">African</a> descent are more likely to develop sickle-cell anemia, because a tendency towards malformed red blood cells was helpful in combating the rampant <a href="/wiki/Malaria" title="Malaria">malaria</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4">[4]</a></sup> It might be uncomfortable to acknowledge such biological differences, but to dismiss them or paint them crudely as <a href="/wiki/Racism" title="Racism">racism</a> ("Are you saying all Black people are sickly?") is not helpful. </p> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Scientific_problems_with_biological_determinism">Scientific problems with biological determinism</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Biological_determinism&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Scientific problems with biological determinism">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Statistical_fallacies">Statistical fallacies</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Biological_determinism&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Statistical fallacies">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <p>On the scientific level, it often comes packaged with numerous fallacies common to the fields of <a href="/wiki/Biology" title="Biology">biology</a>, <a href="/wiki/Statistics" title="Statistics">statistics</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Psychology" title="Psychology">psychology</a>. Biological determinism usually involves the <a href="/wiki/Composition_and_division" class="mw-redirect" title="Composition and division">fallacy of division</a>, i.e. the application of a statistical trend to pre-judge an individual case. The fact that <a href="/wiki/China" title="China">Chinese</a> people tend to be short,<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5">[5]</a></sup> however, does not mean that basketball superstar Yao Ming should hang up his shorts and go home. Other common fallacies generally revolve around misinterpretations of the biological science of the day. </p> <h3><span id="A_"gene_for"_x"></span><span class="mw-headline" id="A_.22gene_for.22_x">A "gene for" x</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Biological_determinism&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: A "gene for" x">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <p>The phrase "the gene for x" is often used in discussions of genetics. This terminology may be confusing for laypeople and is often misrepresented in <a href="/wiki/Popular_science" title="Popular science">popular science</a>. It is rare that a trait will be monogenically determined. Take disease, for example. So far, only about two percent of diseases with a genetic component have been able to be linked to a single <a href="/wiki/Gene" class="mw-redirect" title="Gene">gene</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-6">[6]</a></sup> The expression of a genotype is usually described by a norm of reaction, i.e., the pattern of <a href="/wiki/Phenotype" title="Phenotype">phenotypes</a> produced by a single genotype due to environmental variation.<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-7">[7]</a></sup> This environmentally induced variability is known as "phenotypic plasticity."<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-8">[8]</a></sup> Thus, the phrase "gene for" is usually shorthand for "a gene that increases the likelihood of inheriting trait x" and not a statement that trait x is monogenically determined.<sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-9">[9]</a></sup> </p><p>In one particularly egregious case, literally thousands of papers were written over several decades about <i>SLC6A4</i>, a gene that an early analysis found had some correlation with clinical depression. These followup papers focused on all levels of analysis from effects on brain chemistry, to correlating single factors of depression indices, and associating interactions with life events to the gene's variants. A more thorough analysis in 2005 of a much larger population sample found no correlation whatsoever of the gene and its variants to depression. None. The evidence of every paper up to that point had found weak effect sizes, questionable, if technically significant p-values. And no one had questioned whether there was an effect to find at all. Nonetheless, papers continued to be published about it.<sup id="cite_ref-Depression-Gene_10-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Depression-Gene-10">[10]</a></sup> </p> <h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Conflation_of_heritability_with_genetic_determination">Conflation of heritability with genetic determination</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Biological_determinism&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: Conflation of heritability with genetic determination">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <div role="note" class="hatnote">See the main article on this topic: <a href="/wiki/Heritability" title="Heritability">Heritability</a></div> <p>Arguments for biological determinism typically conflate the term "heritability" with genetic determination of a trait. Heritability is simply a measure of phenotypic variance within a population that is able to be explained in terms of genetic as opposed to environmental factors. This means that a heritability estimate will change when the environment is changed. Heritability estimates also apply only to a specific population in relation to its environmental context. So, for instance, if a trait is said to be 60% heritable, it means that 60% of the variance of the trait for the population measured can be explained by genetic factors in the context of the environment in which the measurement was taken. It does not mean that the trait is 60% genetically determined in all times and all places.<sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-11">[11]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-12" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-12">[12]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-13" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-13">[13]</a></sup> One particularly interesting case for how correlation with genetics should not be conflated with bio-deterministic effects is that the genes children <i>do not inherit</i> from their parents exhibit substantial predictive power about their life outcomes. Specifically, genes <b>not inherited</b> from parents have an apparent 30% effect size on lifetime education attainment.<sup id="cite_ref-naturenurture_14-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-naturenurture-14">[14]</a></sup> </p> <h3><span id="The_myth_of_a_"state_of_nature""></span><span class="mw-headline" id="The_myth_of_a_.22state_of_nature.22">The myth of a "state of nature"</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Biological_determinism&action=edit&section=7" title="Edit section: The myth of a "state of nature"">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <p><a href="/wiki/Political_philosophy" title="Political philosophy">Political philosophers</a> such as Thomas Hobbes and more recently <a href="/wiki/Robert_Nozick" title="Robert Nozick">Robert Nozick</a> have long envisioned humans as having lived in a "state of nature," free of culture, during pre-history. Discoveries in human evolution and <a href="/wiki/Paleontology" title="Paleontology">paleontology</a> have debunked such a notion. Lithic technology created by hominids can be found in the archaeological record dated to more than 2.5 million years ago. This demonstrates the beginning of cultural variation before anatomically modern humans even evolved.<sup id="cite_ref-15" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-15">[15]</a></sup> Gene-culture co-evolution (also called <a href="/wiki/Dual_inheritance_theory" title="Dual inheritance theory">dual inheritance theory</a>) has also demonstrated the interaction of biology and culture. For example, <a href="/wiki/Lactose_tolerance" class="mw-redirect" title="Lactose tolerance">lactose tolerance</a> in humans originated independently with different genetic mutations that proved <a href="/wiki/Adaptation" title="Adaptation">adaptive</a> to societies that domesticated cows and other dairy animals.<sup id="cite_ref-16" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-16">[16]</a></sup> </p> <h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Recent_advances_in_biology">Recent advances in biology</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Biological_determinism&action=edit&section=8" title="Edit section: Recent advances in biology">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <p>Recent findings in a number of areas of the biological sciences have painted a picture of biology that is far more nuanced than biological determinism lets on. One area of research that has generated many new findings is <a href="/wiki/Evolutionary_developmental_biology" title="Evolutionary developmental biology">evolutionary developmental biology</a>, or "evo-devo" in geek-speak, which concentrates on individual development and phenotypic change in relation to evolution. Studies of gene regulation and expression in evo-devo conceptualize genes as "switches" that may be turned on or off at certain points in time due to environmental factors.<sup id="cite_ref-17" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-17">[17]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-18" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-18">[18]</a></sup> Epigenetic factors also play a role in inheritance. Epigenetic inheritance occurs in instances where something is inherited, usually patterns of gene expression, without any change to the underlying <a href="/wiki/DNA" title="DNA">DNA</a> or genetic structure. Inherited changes in DNA methylation and histone modification are mechanisms by which epigenetic inheritance can occur.<sup id="cite_ref-19" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-19">[19]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-20" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-20">[20]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-21" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-21">[note 1]</a></sup> While the phenomenon of <a href="/wiki/Neuroplasticity" title="Neuroplasticity">neuroplasticity</a> is not a recent discovery and has been known since the first half of the 20<sup>th</sup> century, current neuroscientific and neurobiological research into this topic continues to chip away at oversimplified notions of hard genetic determination of cognitive capacities and behavioral traits, which has been dubbed "neurogenetic determinism."<sup id="cite_ref-22" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-22">[21]</a></sup> </p> <h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Essentialism">Essentialism</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Biological_determinism&action=edit&section=9" title="Edit section: Essentialism">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <p>Research in <a href="/wiki/Cognitive_science" title="Cognitive science">cognitive science</a> suggests that biological determinism may be in part the result of certain <a href="/wiki/Cognitive_bias" class="mw-redirect" title="Cognitive bias">cognitive biases</a>, psychological <a href="/wiki/Essentialism" title="Essentialism">essentialism</a> in particular. The posited biological "essence" of humans has shifted over time, from blood to genes. These "essences" are thought to be responsible for determining a person's "innate" potential or constituting the individual's identity.<sup id="cite_ref-23" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-23">[22]</a></sup> </p> <h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Excessive_extrapolation">Excessive extrapolation</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Biological_determinism&action=edit&section=10" title="Edit section: Excessive extrapolation">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <p>People exposed to news articles about how genes influence one trait are much more likely to falsely conclude that other traits are <b>also</b> heavily influenced by genes afterwards.<sup id="cite_ref-24" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-24">[23]</a></sup> <a href="/wiki/American" class="mw-redirect" title="American">American</a> political <a href="/wiki/Conservatives" class="mw-redirect" title="Conservatives">conservatives</a> in particular will react to scientific information showing the unlikelihood of genetic differences explaining racial differences in <a href="/wiki/IQ" title="IQ">IQ</a> by <b>increasing</b> their belief that racial IQ disparities are driven by genetic factors.<sup id="cite_ref-25" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-25">[24]</a></sup> The general term for this kind of negative reaction to new information is known as the <a href="/wiki/Backfire_effect" title="Backfire effect">backfire effect</a>. </p> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="History">History</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Biological_determinism&action=edit&section=11" title="Edit section: History">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Pre-scientific">Pre-scientific</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Biological_determinism&action=edit&section=12" title="Edit section: Pre-scientific">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <p>Before biology came into being as a natural <a href="/wiki/Science" title="Science">science</a> proper, forms of biological determinism existed but not in the same sense that the term is used today. In societies with hereditary social status or <a href="/wiki/Caste" title="Caste">caste</a>, blood was a common biological metaphor for social status, e.g., "royal blood". </p> <h3><span class="mw-headline" id="European_imperialism">European imperialism</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Biological_determinism&action=edit&section=13" title="Edit section: European imperialism">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <p>The beginnings of modern biological determinism grew out of European <a href="/wiki/Imperialism" title="Imperialism">imperialism</a> and the <a href="/wiki/Slave" class="mw-redirect" title="Slave">slave</a> trade. Early biological taxonomies, such as <a href="/wiki/Linnaean_taxonomy" title="Linnaean taxonomy">that of Carl Linnaeus</a>, imported the <a href="/wiki/Theology" title="Theology">theological</a> notion of a <a href="/wiki/Great_Chain_of_Being" title="Great Chain of Being">Great Chain of Being</a> in which people could be ranked hierarchically in a biological sense. This also often invoked <a href="/wiki/Polygenesis" title="Polygenesis">polygenic</a> theories positing different "<a href="/wiki/Race" title="Race">races</a>" of humans, which were believed to be separate <a href="/wiki/Species" title="Species">species</a> or subspecies. </p> <h3><span class="mw-headline" id="The_19th_century_and_the_birth_of_social_Darwinism_and_eugenics">The 19<sup>th</sup> century and the birth of social Darwinism and eugenics</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Biological_determinism&action=edit&section=14" title="Edit section: The 19th century and the birth of social Darwinism and eugenics">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <div style="text-align: center;"><q><i>Anatomy is destiny.</i></q> <cite style="font-style: normal;">—<a href="/wiki/Sigmund_Freud" title="Sigmund Freud">Sigmund Freud</a><sup id="cite_ref-26" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-26">[25]</a></sup></cite></div> <p>In the early 19<sup>th</sup> century, theories of racial supremacy were increasingly <a href="/wiki/Rationalization" title="Rationalization">rationalized</a> through "science." <a href="/wiki/Phrenology" title="Phrenology">Phrenology</a>, especially the branch known as "craniology", i.e. the measurement of skull sizes, began to be used in what came to be called "<a href="/wiki/Scientific_racism" class="mw-redirect" title="Scientific racism">scientific racism</a>". Craniology was also used to rationalize <a href="/wiki/Sexist" class="mw-redirect" title="Sexist">sexist</a> notions about the intellectual inferiority of women. Toward the mid-19<sup>th</sup> century, popular pseudoscientific works espousing unified theories of <a href="/wiki/Bigotry" title="Bigotry">bigotry</a> and <a href="/wiki/Social_Darwinism" title="Social Darwinism">social Darwinism</a> became common. Social Darwinism, something of a misnomer, became popular before <a href="/wiki/Charles_Darwin" title="Charles Darwin">Charles Darwin</a> even published <i><a href="/wiki/On_the_Origin_of_Species" title="On the Origin of Species">On the Origin of Species</a></i>. <a href="/wiki/Herbert_Spencer" title="Herbert Spencer">Herbert Spencer</a>, for example, who was one of the best known alleged social Darwinists, borrowed pseudo-evolutionary <a href="/wiki/Lamarck" class="mw-redirect" title="Lamarck">Lamarckian</a> ideas. <a href="/wiki/Racist" class="mw-redirect" title="Racist">Racist</a>, <a href="/wiki/Sexist" class="mw-redirect" title="Sexist">sexist</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Classism" title="Classism">classist</a> pseudoscience, however, reached its pinnacle with <a href="/wiki/Francis_Galton" title="Francis Galton">Francis Galton</a>'s formulation of <a href="/wiki/Eugenics" title="Eugenics">eugenics</a>. Galton advanced the position known as "<a href="/wiki/Hereditarianism" title="Hereditarianism">hereditarianism</a>", in which capacities such as intelligence were alleged to be entirely inherited, innate, and immutable.<sup id="cite_ref-27" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-27">[26]</a></sup> With the rediscovery of <a href="/wiki/Gregor_Mendel" title="Gregor Mendel">Gregor Mendel</a>'s work and the growth of genetics as a field within biology, genetic determinism and eugenics became the dominant forms of biological determinism. </p> <h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Inter-war_and_post-war_period">Inter-war and post-war period</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Biological_determinism&action=edit&section=15" title="Edit section: Inter-war and post-war period">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <p>Much of the Western world remained in the grip of eugenic ideas up until <a href="/wiki/World_War_II" title="World War II">World War II</a>, though eugenics programs began to lose traction just prior to the war as they increasingly came to be viewed as pseudoscientific. Anthropologists such as <a href="/wiki/Franz_Boas" title="Franz Boas">Franz Boas</a> also challenged biological determinism. In addition, the <a href="/wiki/Soviet_Union" title="Soviet Union">Soviet Union</a> and other <a href="/wiki/Communist" class="mw-redirect" title="Communist">communist</a> countries suppressed or banned Darwinian evolution and Mendelian genetics in favor of the Lamarckian-derived <a href="/wiki/Lysenkoism" title="Lysenkoism">Lysenkoism</a>. The former ideas were denounced as "<a href="/wiki/Bourgeois_pseudoscience" title="Bourgeois pseudoscience">bourgeois pseudosciences</a>." During the post-war period, eugenics and biological determinism in general fell out of favor due to their association with <a href="/wiki/Nazi" class="mw-redirect" title="Nazi">Nazi</a> Germany. This also coincided with the rise of the <a href="/wiki/New_Left" title="New Left">New Left</a> and general counterculture of the 1960s, which led to a further backlash against biological explanations of human behavior. </p> <h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Resurgence_of_biological_theories">Resurgence of biological theories</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Biological_determinism&action=edit&section=16" title="Edit section: Resurgence of biological theories">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <p>The 1970s and 1980s saw a revival of a more watered-down biological determinism. Two main scientific factors in this resurgence were the discovery of the structure of DNA by James Watson and <a href="/wiki/Francis_Crick" title="Francis Crick">Francis Crick</a> in the 1950s, and the application of ethological research to humans in the form of sociobiology starting with the 1975 publication of <a href="/wiki/E.O._Wilson" class="mw-redirect" title="E.O. Wilson">E.O. Wilson</a>'s <i>Sociobiology: The New Synthesis</i>. The rightward shift in the political climate also contributed to this trend. Newer forms of biological determinism repackaged older eugenic and hereditarian ideas in newer, fancier jargon. Public debate over biological determinism erupted once again in the early 1990s with the publication of Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray's neo-eugenicist tract <i><a href="/wiki/The_Bell_Curve" title="The Bell Curve">The Bell Curve</a></i>. Many theories coming out of the field of behavioral genetics, neuroscience, and <a href="/wiki/Evolutionary_psychology" title="Evolutionary psychology">evolutionary psychology</a> have been accused of biological determinism.<sup id="cite_ref-28" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-28">[27]</a></sup> However, with the completion of the <a href="/wiki/Human_Genome_Project" title="Human Genome Project">Human Genome Project</a> in the 2000s, much speculation in this arena has been written off as "genome hype".<sup id="cite_ref-29" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-29">[28]</a></sup> </p> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Contemporary_biological_determinism">Contemporary biological determinism</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Biological_determinism&action=edit&section=17" title="Edit section: Contemporary biological determinism">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <p>Biological determinism is often characterized as a conservative phenomenon due to its association with social Darwinism. However, the truth is more complex than that. The <a href="/wiki/Left-wing" class="mw-redirect" title="Left-wing">left-wing</a> has endorsed theories of biological determinism in a number of cases. The most notable instance of this is the promotion of eugenics among Progressive Era reformers, even including presidents <a href="/wiki/Theodore_Roosevelt" title="Theodore Roosevelt">Theodore Roosevelt</a> and <a href="/wiki/Woodrow_Wilson" title="Woodrow Wilson">Woodrow Wilson</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-30" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-30">[29]</a></sup> Biological determinism is often used in service of <a href="/wiki/Confirmation_bias" title="Confirmation bias">bolstering prior beliefs</a>. </p><p>These complicated roots are reflected in the modern era: while <a href="/wiki/Liberal" class="mw-redirect" title="Liberal">liberals</a> are more likely to invoke deterministic explanations for <a href="/wiki/Sexual_orientation" title="Sexual orientation">sexual orientation</a> and <a href="/wiki/Homosexuality" title="Homosexuality">homosexuality</a>, conservatives are more likely to do so for socioeconomic issues such as class.<sup id="cite_ref-31" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-31">[30]</a></sup> </p><p>One of the proponents of biological determination in modern times, especially in regards to sexual selection, is a forum known as Sluthate.com. On the forum, it is often argued how much can be done to overcome your genetics. Some advocate plastic surgery. Others believe that one's genetics completely determines one's fate. Despite Sluthate.com being considered part of the <a href="/wiki/Manosphere" title="Manosphere">Manosphere</a>, Sluthate.com rejects the majority of the Manosphere pundits as denying biological determinism. Some of the things that the forum argues are attractive to women are things such as having a sharper jaw line and height.<sup>[<a href="/wiki/Help:References" title="Help:References"><i>citation needed</i></a>]</sup> </p> <h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Gender_essentialism">Gender essentialism</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Biological_determinism&action=edit&section=18" title="Edit section: Gender essentialism">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <div role="note" class="hatnote">For more information, see: <a href="/wiki/Trans-exclusionary_radical_feminism" class="mw-redirect" title="Trans-exclusionary radical feminism">Trans-exclusionary radical feminism</a></div> <p>Gender essentialism was an issue that was discussed in the second wave of feminism around the 1960s to 1970s, it wasn't originally about TERF ideology but rather a claim often made that women end up in underprivileged positions due to biological reasons rather than social ones. If you remember any men saying "men are just more naturally inclined to be leaders", congratulations, this is why gender essentialism was challenged in the first place.<sup id="cite_ref-32" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-32">[31]</a></sup> Gender bioessentialism is a common excuse used by TERFs to encourage the <a href="/wiki/Genocide" title="Genocide">genocide</a> of trans people, especially <a href="/wiki/Transmisogyny" title="Transmisogyny">trans women</a>; they believe that gender is based solely on biological phenotype and nothing else, and that trans women will always behave like men and trans men will always behave like women, despite that being disconnected from reality. </p><p>The fact that gender essentialist arguments often justify sexism is one of the reasons that TERFs aren't taken seriously as a real feminist position.<sup id="cite_ref-33" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-33">[32]</a></sup> </p> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="In_science_fiction">In science fiction</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Biological_determinism&action=edit&section=19" title="Edit section: In science fiction">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <p>In Aldous Huxley's <i>Brave New World</i>, citizens of the World State are born into a caste system; however the World Controllers cannot be predetermined from birth, most are secretly societal outcasts who nevertheless support the system because they believe that abandoning it will doom humankind to self-destruction. </p> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="As_basis_for_hereditary_social_class_and_monarchy">As basis for hereditary social class and monarchy</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Biological_determinism&action=edit&section=20" title="Edit section: As basis for hereditary social class and monarchy">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <p>Hereditary social class often presumes biological determinism. For those at the highest levels of the society, the <a href="/wiki/Monarchy" title="Monarchy">monarchs</a>, this is often through a mythical, typically divine ancestor, whose awe-inspiring legend serves as justification for lack of social mobility. In practice, many European monarchs were inbred due to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cousin_marriage" class="extiw" title="wp:cousin marriage" rel="nofollow"><span style="color:#477979 !important;" title="Wikipedia: cousin marriage">cousin marriage</span></a><sup><img alt="" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/12px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png" decoding="async" width="12" height="12" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/18px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/24px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="128" data-file-height="128" /></sup> and marrying other close relatives — not exactly a recipe for genetic fitness. </p> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="See_also">See also</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Biological_determinism&action=edit&section=21" title="Edit section: See also">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Discrimination" title="Discrimination">Discrimination</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Environmental_determinism" title="Environmental determinism">Environmental determinism</a>, a theory that comes to similar conclusions, but is based on the physical environments that various human cultures formed in, rather than genes or biology per se. The two theories can be combined - some claim that the environment of different cultures caused different genes to be selected for or against over thousands of years, resulting in alleged genetic differences in average clannishness, intelligence, etc. between ethnic groups or nations.</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Just_world_hypothesis" class="mw-redirect" title="Just world hypothesis">Just world hypothesis</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Noble_savage" title="Noble savage">Noble savage</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Other" title="Other">Other</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Racialism" title="Racialism">Racialism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Eugenics" title="Eugenics">Eugenics</a></li></ul> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="External_links">External links</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Biological_determinism&action=edit&section=22" title="Edit section: External links">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <ul><li>Richard C. Lewontin. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100610064636/https://tannerlectures.utah.edu/lectures/documents/lewontin83.pdf">"Biological Determinism".</a> The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, University of Utah, 1982.</li> <li>Jonathan Marks. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://personal.uncc.edu/jmarks/interests/Baltimore.html">Scientific and Folk Ideas About Heredity.</a> The Human Genome Project: Reaching Minority Communities in Maryland, June 20-21, 1997, Baltimore, Maryland.</li> <li>Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.umass.edu/preferen/gintis/intergen.pdf">The Inheritance of Inequality.</a> <i>Journal of Economic Perspectives</i>, 16(3): 3–30.</li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.ted.com/talks/alice_dreger_is_anatomy_destiny.html">Is Anatomy Destiny?</a> Alice Dreger, TED talks</li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.thersa.org/events/audio-and-past-events/2012/are-genes-us">Are Genes Us?</a> Donna Dickensen, RSA events</li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.councilforresponsiblegenetics.org/Projects/PastProject.aspx?projectId=11">Genetic Determinism</a>, Council for Responsible Genetics</li></ul> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="References">References</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Biological_determinism&action=edit&section=23" title="Edit section: References">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <ul><li>Alexander, Denis R. and Ronald L. Numbers. (2010) <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://books.google.com/books?id=vQui2N4VxDkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=biology+and+ideology&hl=en&sa=X&ei=LG5QT9DcAubv0gHJpMmBDg&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=biology%20and%20ideology&f=false"><i>Biology and Ideology: From Descartes to Dawkins</i>.</a></li> <li>Laland, Kevin N. and Gillian R. Brown. (2002) <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://books.google.com/books?id=2KcbFVBSxWYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=sense+and+nonsense&hl=en&sa=X&ei=-W5QT9WrDqfq0gG9z4S4DQ&ved=0CEUQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=sense%20and%20nonsense&f=false"><i>Sense and Nonsense: Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behavior.</i></a></li> <li>Rose, Steven, Richard C. Lewontin, and Leon Kamin. (1984) <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://books.google.com/books?id=s34WOgAACAAJ&dq=not+in+our+genes&hl=en&sa=X&ei=fG5QT83TN6LG0QGzyrX8DQ&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA"><i>Not In Our Genes: Biology, Ideology, and Human Nature</i>.</a></li></ul> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Notes">Notes</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Biological_determinism&action=edit&section=24" title="Edit section: Notes">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <div class="references-small" style="font-size:90%;"> <div class="mw-references-wrap"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-21"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-21">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">This is indeed something of a quasi-<a href="/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Lamarck" title="Jean-Baptiste Lamarck">Lamarckian</a> phenomenon, though <a href="/wiki/Natural_selection" title="Natural selection">natural selection</a> is still in play in relation to these epigenetic factors, so it is not opposed to or a challenge to Darwinian evolution.</span> </li> </ol></div></div> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="References_2">References</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Biological_determinism&action=edit&section=25" title="Edit section: References">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <div class="references-small" style="-moz-column-count:2; -webkit-column-count:2; column-count:2; font-size:90%;"> <div class="mw-references-wrap mw-references-columns"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-1">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://books.google.com/books?id=wHphHUhDk7wC&pg=PA496&lpg=PA496&dq=survival+through+suicide+maynard+smith&source=bl&ots=XmJG249IPR&sig=mBCGotJjJOvuyadm7BOVKPZq6Vs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=H_5OT6vlIYre0QGYn8DcDQ&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=survival%20through%20suicide%20maynard%20smith&f=false">Smith's review of E.O. Wilson's <i>Sociobiology</i> in <i>New Scientist</i>, Aug. 28, 1975</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-2">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=secrets-of-the-phallus">"Secrets of the Phallus"</a>, <i>Scientific American</i>. See also <a href="/wiki/Jerry_Coyne" title="Jerry Coyne">Jerry Coyne</a>'s <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2011/01/16/evolutionary-psychology-for-the-masses/">Evolutionary Psychology for the Masses</a> for a debunking.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-3">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">David Sloan Wilson, Eric Dietrich, and Ann B. Clark. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://evolution.binghamton.edu/dswilson/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/DSW14.pdf">On the Inappropriate Use of the Naturalistic Fallacy in Evolutionary Psychology.</a> <i>Biology and Philosophy</i>, 18: 669-682, 2003.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-4">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Wellems, Thomas, Karen Hayton, and Rick M. Fairhurst<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.jci.org/articles/view/38307">"The impact of malarial parasitism"</a>. <i>Journal of Clinical Investigation 119:9.</i></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-5">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.interbasket.net/news/4385/2009/09/average-height-by-country-males-20-years/">"Average Height by Country (Males <20 Years)"</a>, <i>Interbasket.net</i></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-6"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-6">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Eva Jablonka and Marion Lamb. (2005) <i>Evolution in Four Dimensions</i>, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://books.google.com/books?id=EaCiHFq3MWsC&printsec=frontcover#v=snippet&q=simple%20monogenic&f=false">p. 58.</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-7">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.mun.ca/biology/scarr/6390_Norm_of_Reaction.html">Norm of Reaction</a>, Steven Carr, Memorial University</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-8">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Douglas W. Whitman and Anurag A. Agrawal. (2009) <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.eeb.cornell.edu/agrawal/pdfs/whitman-and-agrawal-2009-Ch_1-Phenotypic-Plasticity-of-Insects.pdf">What Is Phenotypic Plasticity and Why Is It Important?</a> Ch. 1 in <i>Phenotypic Plasticity of Insects: Mechanisms and Consequences</i> (ed. D. W. Whitman and T. N. Ananthakrishnan), pp. 1-63.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-9">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.bionews.org.uk/page_54781.asp">Are There "Genes For" Traits?</a> John Dupre, BioNews</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Depression-Gene-10"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-Depression-Gene_10-0">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>The Atlantic</i>, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/05/waste-1000-studies/589684/">A Waste of 1,000 Research Papers</a>, May 2019</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-11"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-11">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">James B. Holland, Wyman E. Nyquist, and Cuauhtemoc T. Cervantes-Martinez. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.usmarc.usda.gov/SP2UserFiles/ad_hoc/66452500Publications/Holland/HollandNyquistPltBreedRev03.pdf">Estimating and Interpreting Heritability for Plant Breeding: An Update.</a> <i>Plant Breeding Reviews</i>, vol. 22, 2003</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-12"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-12">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">NC Manson. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://jme.bmj.com/content/30/6/601.full">Presenting Behavioral Genetics: Spin, Ideology, and Our Narrative Interests.</a> J Med Ethics 2004;30:601-604</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-13"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-13">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Robert C. Bailey. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/m1v170271j10x788/">Hereditarian Scientific Fallacies.</a> <i>Genetica</i>, vol. 99, nos. 2-3, 1997, pp. 125-133</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-naturenurture-14"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-naturenurture_14-0">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6374/424">The nature of nurture: Effects of parental genotypes</a> <i>Science</i> 26 Jan 2018: Vol. 359, Issue 6374, pp. 424-428 DOI: 10.1126/science.aan6877</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-15"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-15">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Jonathan Marks. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://personal.uncc.edu/jmarks/pubs/2012biocultural.pdf">The Biological Myth of Human Evolution.</a> <i>Contemporary Social Science</i> Vol. 7, No. 2, 139–165, June 2012</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-16"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-16">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Timo Vuorisalo, Olli Arjamaa. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/page2/gene-culture-coevolution-and-human-diet">Gene-Culture Coevolution and Human Diet.</a> <i>American Scientist</i>, Volume 98, Number 2, 2010</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-17"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-17">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Gerd B. Muller. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.biol.uw.edu.pl/empseb2010/images/artPigliucci1.pdf">Evo-Devo: Extending the Evolutionary Synthesis.</a> <i>Nature Reviews Genetics</i>, Nov. 2007</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-18"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-18">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/10/24/051024crbo_books1">Turned On</a>, H. Allen Orr, <i>The New Yorker</i></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-19"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-19">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://books.google.com/books?id=EaCiHFq3MWsC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">Jablonka and Lamb 2005</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-20"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-20">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2003/aug/14/whats-not-in-your-genes/?pagination=false">What's Not In Your Genes</a>, H. Allen Orr, <i>New York Review of Books</i></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-22"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-22">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Steven Rose. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.amielandmelburn.org.uk/collections/soundings/02_53.pdf">The Rise of Neurogenetic Determinism.</a> <i>Soundings</i>, no. 2, Spring 1996</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-23"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-23">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Ilan Dar-Nimrod and Steven J. Heine. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~heine/docs/geneticessentialism.pdf">Genetic Essentialism: On the Deceptive Determinism of DNA.</a> <i>Psychological Bulletin</i>, 2011, Vol. 137, No. 5, 800 – 818</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-24"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-24">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Morin-Chassé, Alexandre. 2014. Public (Mis)understanding of News about Behavioral Genetics Research: A Survey Experiment. <i>BioScience</i> 64(12): 1170–1177 DOI:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biu168">10.1093/biosci/biu168</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-25"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-25">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Morin-Chassé, Alexandre, Elizabeth Suhay, and Toby E. Jayaratne. 2017. Discord over DNA: Ideological Responses to Scientific Communication about Genes and Race. <i>Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics</i> 2(2): 260-299 DOI:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1017/rep.2017.17">10.1017/rep.2017.17</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-26"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-26">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://german.about.com/library/blfreud.htm">Sigmund Freud</a>, about.com</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-27"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-27">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-234684">Hereditarian Ideology and European Constructions of Race</a>, Encyclopedia Britannica</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-28"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-28">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Ronald F. White. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://inside.msj.edu/academics/faculty/whiter/choice.htm">Toward the "New Synthesis": Evolution, Human Nature, and the Social Sciences.</a> <i>Choice</i>, Sep. 1998</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-29"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-29">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2010/06/14/the-human-genome-project-hype-meets-real/">The Human Genome Project: Hype Meets Reality</a>, <a href="/wiki/Respectful_Insolence" title="Respectful Insolence">Respectful Insolence</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-30"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-30">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Thomas C. Leonard. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.princeton.edu/~tleonard/papers/retrospectives.pdf">Retrospectives: Economics and Eugenics in the Progressive Era.</a> <i>Journal of Economic Perspectives</i>—Volume 19, Number 4—Fall 2005—Pages 207–224</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-31"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-31">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"> Suhay, Elizabeth and Toby E. Jayaratne. 2013. Does Biology Justify Ideology? The Politics of Genetic Attribution. <i>Public Opinion Quarterly</i> 77(2): 497-521 DOI:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfs049">10.1093/poq/nfs049</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-32"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-32">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.kyoolee.net/one_is_not_born_a_woman_-_wittig.pdf">Monique Wittig <i>One Is Not Born A Woman</i> 1980</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-33"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-33">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43154216">Charlotte Witt Vol. 23, No. 2, Feminist Perspectives on Language, Knowledge, and Reality (FALL 1995), pp. 321-344 (24 pages)</a></span> </li> </ol></div></div>    </div></div><div class="printfooter">Retrieved from "<a dir="ltr" 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