64 PRETEND GENESpo liti cal party preference
po liti cal participation
attitudes toward homo sexuality and gay rights
religious denomination chosen in adulthood
experience of suspicion and guilt
gun owner ship
loneliness
use of tobacco
happiness
alcoholism
criminality
tendency to take bubble baths
tendency to become a born- again Christian
tendency to vote in elections
preference for tea or coff ee
age of losing virginityTh is is the message drip- dripped onto a gullible public and student
body. It seems that, what ever behavioral diff erences in humans there are,
the twin method seemingly cannot fail to fi nd a “ge ne tic basis” for it. Th is
was nicely summarized in a recent article in the New York Times (July 9,
2015). “Over the last 50 years, some 17,000 traits have been studied,
according to a meta- analy sis.... Virtually wherever researchers have
looked, they have found that identical twins’ test results are more similar
than those of fraternal twins. Th e studies point to the infl uence of genes
on almost every aspect of our being (a conclusion so sweeping that it indi-
cates, to some scientists, only that the methodology must be fatally fl awed)”
(emphasis added).^33
Many readers may think it quite reasonable to expect such heritabili-
ties. It is surely obvious that some variable genes, as in those studied by
Mendel, make a diff erence to trait values. However, such traits are not
typical of complex, highly evolved functions like human intelligence,
prob ably involving thousands of genes and critical to survival.
Fisher himself noted that it is part of the logic of natu ral se lection for
impor tant traits to have low heritabilities. Indeed, that has been confi rmed
many times in properly controlled animal experiments and fi eld studies.
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