Using genetics for social science

K. Paige Harden; Philipp D. Koellinger

doi:10.1038/s41562-020-0862-5

Using genetics for social science

K. Paige Harden^*, Philipp D. Koellinger

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Review article › Academic › peer-review

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Abstract

Social science genetics is concerned with understanding whether, how and why genetic differences between human beings are linked to differences in behaviours and socioeconomic outcomes. Our review discusses the goals, methods, challenges and implications of this research endeavour. We survey how the recent developments in genetics are beginning to provide social scientists with a powerful new toolbox they can use to better understand environmental effects, and we illustrate this with several substantive examples. Furthermore, we examine how medical research can benefit from genetic insights into social-scientific outcomes and vice versa. Finally, we discuss the ethical challenges of this work and clarify several common misunderstandings and misinterpretations of genetic research on individual differences.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	567-576
Number of pages	10
Journal	Nature Human Behaviour
Volume	4
Issue number	6
Early online date	11 May 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0862-5
Publication status	Published - 1 Jun 2020

Funding

We thank C. Burik for preparing Fig. 1 and the Social Science Genetic Association Consortium (https://www.thessgac.org/) for Fig. 3. P.D.K. was financially supported by an ERC consolidator grant (647648 EdGe). K.P.H. was supported by the Jacobs Foundation, the Templeton Foundation and Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) grants R01-HD083613 and 5-R24-HD042849 (to the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin). The funders had no role in the conceptualization, preparation or decision to publish this work.

Funders	Funder number
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development	R01HD083613
John Templeton Foundation
University of Texas at Austin
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development	5-R24-HD042849
FP7 Ideas: European Research Council
European Research Council	647648 EdGe
Jacobs Foundation

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1038/s41562-020-0862-5

Using genetics for social scienceFinal published version, 1.92 MBLicence: Article 25fa Dutch Copyright Act

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Using genetics for social science

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UN SDGs

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