Do Genes Dictate Behavior?

• Position: Brief Article

Do "selfish genes" program men to be more promiscuous than women? Beneath the veneer of civility, are people innately aggressive? Some researchers--and a growing segment of the general population--would answer "yes" to those and a host of other questions, suggesting that we are tightly programmed by our genes. However, Paul R. Ehdich, Bing Professor of Population Studies, Stanford (Calif.) University, and author of Human Natures: Genes, Cultures and the Human Prospect, argues that there is little scientific basis for such widely accepted notions.

He expresses concern about the growing resurgence of genetic determinism--the belief that human DNA contains "instructions" that dictate behavior, including so-called "genes for rape," "gay genes," "criminal genes," and "genes for intelligence." He points out that "There is an unhappy predilection, especially in the United States, not only to overrate the effect of genetic evolution, but also to underrate the effect of cultural evolution. Uniquely in our species, changes in culture have been fully as important in producing our natures as have changes in the hereditary information passed on by our ancestors."

Take, for example, the popular belief that human males are genetically wired to be more promiscuous than females. "Women, like men, evolved to be smart," says Ehrlich, "and they certainly don't need to be rocket scientists to understand that they make a bigger potential commitment to each sex act than do men. That alone, rather than an evolved tendency in men to reproduce more, could explain differences in attitudes toward fidelity."

As to the question of whether human beings are innately aggressive, he maintains that we are "at least as often peaceful and resolve conflicts nonviolently. Maybe we should talk about us as being the `conciliatory apes.'"

He dismisses the notion of the "selfish gene"--the idea that genes are simply tiny, self-reproducing units with goals of their own, "Much of the problem traces to the field of evolutionary psychology, where knowledge of genetics and evolution tends to trail far behind the knowledge of psychology. Indeed, talk about genes being `self-replicating' or `selfish' is very misleading. Genes cannot...