The long history of sociologists ignoring the role of genetics in human behavior is being challenged. The Chronicle asks:
If sociologists ignore genes, will other academics — and the wider world — ignore sociology?
Some in the discipline are telling their peers just that. With study after study finding that all sorts of personal characteristics are heritable — along with behaviors shaped by those characteristics — a see-no-gene perspective is obsolete.
A new supplement of the American Journal of Sociology is devoted to the integration of genetics into the field. With titles like:
- Gene by Social Context Interactions for Number of Sexual Partners among White Male Youths: Genetics-Informed Sociology
- Happiness and Success: Genes, Families, and the Psychological Effects of Socioeconomic Position and Social Support
this supplement should make some great reading (a few of the articles are open access if you do not have a subscription). Hopefully the integration of genetics and sociology will break through the academic barriers that have made nature/nurture debates unproductive.
Thanks for the link, Mason. This is some fascinating stuff. The biology textbook and race study looks particularly interesting. To say nothing of the notion that humans could be studied as biological organisms, of course!