Friday, November 27, 2020

Is our behavior affected by genes?

 


The fact that genes affect our behavior or not is still a controversial claim, for ethical reasons, we cannot make experiments to prove or dismiss this claim. The latest studies suggest that behavior is affected by both genetics and environmental factors, this gives rise to debates like nature against nurture. The real problem with this is that since for many reasons it's not easy to conduct formal experiments, it is also difficult to isolate a gene or a proper strain that changes behavior, and that is without taking into account the environmental factors. There are different approaches to study the relation of genes and behavior, like the single gene and behavior approach where we look at the repercussions that a single gene has on behavior. We can then analyze more complex behavioral factors and diseases like schizophrenia which is a rare but complex genetic disease. In the end, we are approaching the evidence to indisputably state that genes affect behavior, not just the environment someone grows within; at our current pace we could see the evidence sooner than we think, and who knows, maybe even specific information on how genes directly affect certain behaviors of ours.

Genes and Behavior (stanford.edu)

Behavioral Genetics - How are Genes and Behavior Linked? (explorebiotech.com)

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