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The failure of gene-centrism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 September 2023

Edward Archer
Affiliation:
Research and Development, EvolvingFX, LLC, Fort Wayne, IN, USA archer1@evolvingfx.com
Carl J. Lavie
Affiliation:
John Ochsner Heart & Vascular Institute, Ochsner Clinical School – The University of Queensland School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA, USA clavie@ochsner.org

Abstract

“Challenging the utility of polygenic scores for social science” is a compelling but limited critique. Phenotypic development is sensitive to both initial conditions and all subsequent states – from conception to senescence. Thus, gene-centric analyses are misleading (and often meaningless) because gene products are transformed, and their phenotypic ‘effects' combined and attenuated with successive propagations from molecular and cellular contexts to organismal and social environments.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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