The Social Genome: The New Science of Nature and Nurture

Nature versus nurture has been one of the most contentious issues in the human sciences for 150 years. On the one side are so-called "blank-slaters," those who believe we are entirely shaped by our environment. On the other side are "hereditarians," a term sometimes used to disparage people who believe in the deterministic primacy of genes. The fight has been highly politicized and extremely bitter with implications relating to racial disparities, meritocracy, fairness, reproduction, and even free will. For decades, pioneering scientist Dalton Conley tried to answer the big social questions--about why groups hold together, about inequality, and more--through the traditional tools of his first field, sociology. He eventually found that those tools could take him only so far. Now, in The Social Genome, Conley explains how the new field of sociogenomics will upend our world.

Sociogenomics brings together advances in molecular genetics with traditional social and behavioral science. It is leading to exciting discoveries from how much alcohol is too much to how smoking spreads through teenage social networks to how spouses affect each other's moods and behavior. But the sociogenomics revolution goes beyond just weighing the relative inputs of genes and the environment, it has called into question a dichotomy at the heart of the social sciences. As a founding member of the field of sociogenomics, Conley argues that we should no longer think of nature versus nurture, but of how our genes need nurture to work and how, in turn, our environments are made partly from the genes of other people. The key is the polygenic index, which allows us to analyze DNA to broadly predict a child's future. Today, we can with reasonable confidence predict a child's adult height, how far they will go in school, and whether they will be overweight as an adult--all from a cheek swab, finger prick, or vial of saliva. In the future, Conley foresees a world where parents can preselect their babies based on genetic risks and potential, where insurance companies risk adjust based on genetic profiles and where schools, dating, and other institutions of society have been radically altered by this new science.

The insights in The Social Genome not only offer a more nuanced perspective on individual potential and social dynamics brought about by sociogenomics, but also raise critical ethical questions about how we will navigate a future where genetic information influences everything from parenting choices to policy decisions.