Genetics and Health

Kindness Genes

by Hsien Hsien Lei, PhD on August 4th, 2005

As a counterbalance to my post about genes for terrorism last month, here’s a commentary written by Lee Dye for ABC News about genes for human kindness.

He quotes Dr. Philippe Rushton* of the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario who believes that there are genes for altruism. In a study of 174 pairs of identical twins and 148 pairs of fraternal twins, Dr. Rushton found that genes account for 42 percent of individual difference in attitudes. That leaves a lot of room for other non-genetic factors, such as family and school environment, and leads other well-known scientists to shake their heads and say,

“Genetic evolution did not determine most of how we act or provide us all with a pre-programmed ‘human nature,’ ” told a meeting of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. “There is no reason to believe that human beings are either innately violent or innately peaceful, instinctively disposed to wreck their environments or to be conservationists, or born genetically gay or genetically straight.”

Sounds like a debate for philosophers too.

As you might have figured out by now, I tend to be middle-of-the-road on just about everything. I believe genes and environment are both important in creating the people we are, physically and mentally. Sometimes one has a stronger effect than the other, but we couldn’t live without either.

*While doing research for this post, I learned that Dr. Rushton is best-known for his controversial work on racial differences.

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