SOCIOBIOLOGY SANITIZED

[Xxxx Xxxxx Xxxxxx <xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.ferris.edu/isar/archives/dusek.htm

SOCIOBIOLOGY SANITIZED: THE EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY AND GENIC
SELECTIONISM DEBATES

Science and Culture, 1998.
http://www.shef.ac.uk/~psysc/rmy/dusek.html

***THE HUMAN GENOME PROJECT

The Human Genome Project and the biotechnology industry splattered the
press with announcements of amazing scientific discoveries, both real
and imagined. Weekly there were headlines of the discovery of a "gene
for" this and that trait. Often
these genes for behavioral traits of general interest are merely one
link in an immense network of biochemical pathways that produced the
trait. Absence of the gene led to absence of the trait, but the gene
alone was not sufficient for the trait, with
numerous other genes and environmental factors were involved. A number
of "breakthroughs" in the discovery of genes for psychological maladies
such as manic depression, schizophrenia, and alcoholism turned out to
false alarms, but the public was often unaware of the quiet back page
retractions of claims that had earlier been trumpeted on the front
pages. Nevertheless the weekly assault of newspaper articles claiming
the discover of genes for almost everything (including television
watching) made the public believe that numerous genes for behaviors and
mental conditions had been discovered. Daniel Kosman, editor of Science
magazine, could claim authoritatively that the nature-nurture
controversy was over and that nature won (Kosman, 1984).

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Xxxx Xxxxx Xxxxxx
PhD Student
Department of Political Science
SUNY at Albany
Nelson A. Rockefeller College
135 Western Ave.; Milne 102
Albany, NY 12222



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