2.4 Genetics, Evolutionary Psychology, and Behavior

66

Behavior Genetics: Predicting Individual Differences

2-13 What are chromosomes, DNA, genes, and the human genome? How do behavior geneticists explain our individual differences?

Our shared brain architecture predisposes some common behavioral tendencies. Whether we live in the Arctic or the tropics, we sense the world, develop language, and feel hunger through identical mechanisms. We prefer sweet tastes to sour. We divide the color spectrum into similar colors. And we feel drawn to behaviors that produce and protect offspring.

image
The nurture of nature Parents everywhere wonder: Will my baby grow up to be peaceful or aggressive? Homely or attractive? Successful or struggling at every step? What comes built in, and what is nurtured—and how? Research reveals that nature and nurture together shape our development—every step of the way.
A Thousand Words Photography by Erica Corner

Our human family shares not only a common biological heritage—cut us and we bleed—but also common social behaviors. Whether named Gonzales, Nkomo, Smith, or Wong, we start fearing strangers at about eight months, and as adults we prefer the company of those with attitudes and attributes similar to our own. As members of one species, we affiliate, conform, return favors, punish offenses, organize hierarchies of status, and grieve a child’s death. A visitor from outer space could drop in anywhere and find humans dancing and feasting, singing and worshiping, playing sports and games, laughing and crying, living in families and forming groups. We are the leaves of one tree.

environment every nongenetic influence, from prenatal nutrition to the people and things around us.

heredity the genetic transfer of characteristics from parents to offspring.

behavior genetics the study of the relative power and limits of genetic and environmental influences on behavior.

But in important ways, we also are each unique. We look different. We sound different. We have varying personalities, interests, and cultural and family backgrounds. What causes our striking diversity? How much of it is shaped by our differing genes, and how much by our environment—by every external influence, from maternal nutrition while in the womb to social support while nearing the tomb? How does our heredity interact with our experiences to create both our universal human nature and our individual and social diversity? Such questions intrigue behavior geneticists.

Genes: Our Codes for Life

chromosomes threadlike structures made of DNA molecules that contain the genes.

DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) a complex molecule containing the genetic information that makes up the chromosomes.

genes the biochemical units of heredity that make up the chromosomes; segments of DNA capable of synthesizing proteins.

genome the complete instructions for making an organism, consisting of all the genetic material in that organism’s chromosomes.

Barely more than a century ago, few would have guessed that every cell nucleus in your body contains the genetic master code for your entire body. It’s as if every room in Dubai’s Burj Khalifa (the world’s tallest building) contained a book detailing the architect’s plans for the entire structure. The plans for your own book of life run to 46 chapters—23 donated by your mother’s egg and 23 by your father’s sperm. Each of these 46 chapters, called a chromosome, is composed of a coiled chain of the molecule DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). Genes, small segments of the giant DNA molecules, form the words of those chapters (FIGURE 2.29). Altogether, you have 20,000 to 25,000 genes, which can be either active (expressed) or inactive. Environmental events “turn on” genes, rather like hot water enabling a tea bag to express its flavor. When turned on, genes provide the code for creating protein molecules, our body’s building blocks.

Genetically speaking, every other human is nearly your identical twin. Human genome researchers have discovered the common sequence within human DNA. This shared genetic profile makes us humans, rather than tulips, bananas, or chimpanzees.

image
Figure 2.29: FIGURE 2.29 The life code The nucleus of every human cell contains chromosomes, each of which is made up of two strands of DNA connected in a double helix. Genes are DNA segments that, when expressed (turned on), direct the development of proteins that influence a person’s individual development.
image
The New Yorker Collection, 1999 Danny Shanahan from cartoonbank.com. All rights reserved.

67

“We share half our genes with the banana.”

Evolutionary biologist Robert May, president of Britain’s Royal Society, 2001

The occasional variations found at particular gene sites in human DNA fascinate geneticists and psychologists. Slight person-to-person variations from the common pattern give clues to our uniqueness—why one person has a disease that another does not, why one person is tall and another short, why one is anxious and another calm.

Most of our traits have complex genetic roots. How tall you are, for example, reflects the size of your face, vertebrae, leg bones, and so forth—each of which may be influenced by different genes interacting with your specific environment. Traits such as intelligence, happiness, and aggressiveness are similarly influenced by groups of genes. Thus, our genes help explain both our shared human nature and our human diversity. But knowing our heredity tells only part of our story. To form us, environmental influences interact with our genetic predispositions.

“Your DNA and mine are 99.9 percent the same. . . . At the DNA level, we are clearly all part of one big worldwide family.”

Francis Collins, Human Genome Project director, 2007

RETRIEVE IT

Question

3uWvIQ1KJkoE4v+2P3sJHQDvEGPBUn0VAiy9XJB0w2XL7Cz/ucPrLedq91D4VBA8tyA+01T9AoHADLA9d83HDN5LV0GQZo/3Qd4QMXBfeCDPlVe0ZsFTa4rP9n+7X/rAj3nI5qpbzgn0zauVAXlznlapg/LBYnaspZ/nD/HrJprx6m1mw+ZVOXukF2Q=
ANSWER: gene, chromosome, nucleus

Question

When the mother's egg and the father's sperm unite, each contributes 23 k+kCsNZvTDPH8xN4sVObJA== .

Twin and Adoption Studies

2-14 How do twin and adoption studies help us understand the effects and interactions of nature and nurture?

image See LaunchPad’s Video: Twin Studies, below for a helpful tutorial animation.

To scientifically tease apart the influences of environment and heredity, behavior geneticists could wish for two types of experiments. The first would control heredity while varying the home environment. The second would control the home environment while varying heredity. Although such experiments with human infants would be unethical, nature has done this work for us.

identical (monozygotic) twins develop from a single fertilized egg that splits in two, creating two genetically identical organisms.

IDENTICAL VERSUS FRATERNAL TWINS Identical (monozygotic) twins develop from a single fertilized egg that splits in two. Thus they are genetically identical—nature’s own human clones (FIGURE 2.30). Indeed, they are clones who share not only the same genes but the same conception and uterus, and usually the same birth date and cultural history.

image
Figure 2.30: FIGURE 2.30 Same fertilized egg, same genes; different eggs, different genes Identical twins develop from a single fertilized egg, fraternal twins from two.

fraternal (dizygotic) twins develop from separate fertilized eggs. They are genetically no closer than ordinary brothers and sisters, but they share a prenatal environment.

68

Fraternal (dizygotic) twins develop from two separate fertilized eggs. As womb-mates, they share a prenatal environment, but they are genetically no more similar than ordinary brothers and sisters.

Shared genes can translate into shared experiences. A person whose identical twin has autism spectrum disorder, for example, has about a 3 in 4 risk of being similarly diagnosed. If the affected twin is fraternal, the co-twin has about a 1 in 3 risk (Ronald & Hoekstra, 2011). To study the effects of genes and environments, hundreds of researchers have studied some 800,000 identical and fraternal twin pairs (Johnson et al., 2009).

Are genetically identical twins also behaviorally more similar than fraternal twins? Studies of thousands of twin pairs have found that identical twins are much more alike in extraversion (outgoingness) and neuroticism (emotional instability) than are fraternal twins (Kandler et al., 2011; Laceulle et al., 2011; Loehlin, 2012).

Identical twins, more than fraternal twins, look alike. So, do people’s responses to their looks account for their similarities? No. In one clever study, a researcher compared personality similarity between identical twins and unrelated look-alike pairs (Segal, 2013). Only the identical twins reported similar personalities. Other studies have shown that identical twins whose parents treated them alike (for example, dressing them identically) were not psychologically more alike than identical twins who were treated less similarly (Kendler et al., 1994; Loehlin & Nichols, 1976). In explaining individual differences, genes matter.

image
Skin deep Do identical twins have similar personalities because people respond to their similar looks? These women look like identical twins, but they aren’t genetically related. Such “twins” do not report similar personalities (Segal, 2013).
twinstrangers.com

SEPARATED TWINS Imagine the following science fiction experiment: A mad scientist decides to separate identical twins at birth, then raise them in differing environments. Better yet, consider a true story:

On a chilly February morning in 1979, some time after divorcing his first wife, Linda, Jim Lewis awoke in his modest home next to his second wife, Betty. Determined to make this marriage work, Jim made a habit of leaving love notes to Betty around the house. As he lay in bed he thought about others he had loved, including his son, James Alan, and his faithful dog, Toy.

Twins Lorraine and Levinia Christmas, driving to deliver Christmas presents to each other near Flitcham, England, collided (Shepherd, 1997).

Jim looked forward to spending part of the day in his basement woodworking shop, where he enjoyed building furniture, picture frames, and other items, including a white bench now circling a tree in his front yard. Jim also liked to spend free time driving his Chevy, watching stock car racing, and drinking Miller Lite beer.

Jim was basically healthy, except for occasional half-day migraine headaches and blood pressure that was a little high, perhaps related to his chain-smoking habit. He had become overweight a while back but had shed some of the pounds. Having undergone a vasectomy, he was done having children.

What was extraordinary about Jim Lewis, however, was that at that same moment (we are not making this up) there existed another man—also named Jim—for whom all these things (right down to the dog’s name) were also true.1 This other Jim—Jim Springer—just happened, 38 years earlier, to have been his fetal partner. Thirty-seven days after their birth, these genetically identical twins were separated, adopted by blue-collar families, and raised with no contact or knowledge of each other’s whereabouts until the day Jim Lewis received a call from his genetic clone (who, having been told he had a twin, set out to find him).

One month later, the brothers became the first of many separated twin pairs tested by University of Minnesota psychologist Thomas Bouchard and his colleagues (Miller, 2012). The brothers’ voice intonations and inflections were so similar that, hearing a playback of an earlier interview, Jim Springer guessed “That’s me.” Wrong—it was Jim Lewis. Given tests measuring their personality, intelligence, heart rate, and brain waves, the Jim twins—despite 38 years of separation—were virtually as alike as the same person tested twice. Both married women named Dorothy Jane Scheckelburger. Okay, the last item is a joke. But as Judith Rich Harris (2006) has noted, it would hardly be weirder than some other reported similarities.

69

In 2009, thieves broke into a Berlin store and stole jewelry worth $6.8 million. One thief left a drop of sweat—a link to his genetic signature. Police analyzed the DNA and encountered two matches: The DNA belonged to identical twin brothers. The court ruled that “at least one of the brothers took part in the crime, but it has not been possible to determine which one.” Birds of a feather can rob together.

Aided by media publicity, Bouchard (2009) and his colleagues located and studied 74 pairs of identical twins raised apart. They continued to find similarities not only of tastes and physical attributes but also of personality (characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting), abilities, attitudes, interests, and even fears.

In Sweden, researchers identified 99 separated identical twin pairs and more than 200 separated fraternal twin pairs (Pedersen et al., 1988). Compared with equivalent samples of identical twins raised together, the separated identical twins had somewhat less identical personalities. Still, separated twins were more alike if genetically identical than if fraternal. And separation shortly after birth (rather than, say, at age 8) did not amplify their personality differences.

Coincidences are not unique to twins. Patricia Kern of Colorado was born March 13, 1941, and named Patricia Ann Campbell. Patricia DiBiasi of Oregon also was born March 13, 1941, and named Patricia Ann Campbell. Both had fathers named Robert, worked as bookkeepers, and at the time of this comparison had children ages 21 and 19. Both studied cosmetology, enjoyed oil painting as a hobby, and married military men, within 11 days of each other. They are not genetically related. (From an AP report, May 2, 1983.)

Stories of startling twin similarities have not impressed critics, who remind us that “The plural of anecdote is not data.” They note that if any two strangers were to spend hours comparing their behaviors and life histories, they would probably discover many coincidental similarities. If researchers created a control group of biologically unrelated pairs of the same age, sex, and ethnicity, who had not grown up together but who were as similar to one another in economic and cultural background as are many of the separated twin pairs, wouldn’t these pairs also exhibit striking similarities (Joseph, 2001)? Twin researchers have replied that separated fraternal twins do not exhibit similarities comparable with those of separated identical twins.

The impressive data from personality assessments are clouded by the reunion of many of the separated twins some years before they were tested. And adoption agencies also tend to place separated twins in similar homes. Despite these criticisms, the striking twin-study results helped shift scientific thinking toward a greater appreciation of genetic influences.

image
Identical twins are people two Identical twin sisters Mia (left) and Alexandra (right), featured in the film Twin Sisters (2013), are nearly always worlds apart. Adopted to different families as infants, Mia lives in suburban California and Alexandra lives in a Norwegian village. Mia plays the piano and enjoys golf, whereas Alexandra roams the countryside and plays with her pet mouse. Despite these differences, they share striking similarities. Both girls dislike tomatoes, olives, and messy rooms but are wild about chocolate.
Mona Friis Bertheussen/Moment Film

If genetic influences help explain individual differences, can the same be said of trait differences between groups? Not necessarily. Individual differences in height and weight, for example, are highly heritable; yet nutrition (an environmental factor) rather than genetic influences explains why, as a group, today’s adults are taller and heavier than those of a century ago. The two groups differ, but not because human genes have changed in a mere century’s eyeblink of time. Ditto aggressiveness, a genetically influenced trait. Today’s peaceful Scandinavians differ from their more aggressive Viking ancestors, despite carrying many of the same genes.

BIOLOGICAL VERSUS ADOPTIVE RELATIVES For behavior geneticists, nature’s second real-life experiment—adoption—creates two groups: genetic relatives (biological parents and siblings) and environmental relatives (adoptive parents and siblings). For personality or any other given trait, we can therefore ask whether adopted children are more like their biological parents, who contributed their genes, or their adoptive parents, who contribute a home environment. While sharing that home environment, do adopted siblings also come to share traits?

The stunning finding from studies of hundreds of adoptive families is that, with the exception of identical twins, people who grow up together do not much resemble one another in personality (McGue & Bouchard, 1998; Plomin, 2011; Rowe, 1990). In personality traits such as extraversion and agreeableness, people who have been adopted are more similar to their biological parents than to their caregiving adoptive parents.

70

image
Nature or nurture or both? When talent runs in families, as with Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, and Delfeayo Marsalis, how do heredity and environment together do their work?
Charles Sykes/AP Photo

The finding is important enough to bear repeating: The environment shared by a family’s children has virtually no discernible impact on their personalities. Two adopted children raised in the same home are no more likely to share personality traits with each other than with the child down the block. Heredity shapes other primates’ personalities, too. Macaque monkeys raised by foster mothers exhibited social behaviors that resembled their biological, rather than foster, mothers (Maestripieri, 2003). Add in the similarity of identical twins, whether they grow up together or apart, and the effect of a shared environment seems shockingly modest.

image
Edward Koren/The New Yorker Collection/Condé Nast

The genetic leash may limit the family environment’s influence on personality, but it does not mean that adoptive parenting is a fruitless venture. As a new adoptive parent, I [ND] especially find it heartening to know that parents do influence their children’s attitudes, values, manners, politics, and faith (Reifman & Cleveland, 2007). Religious involvement is genetically influenced (Steger et al., 2011). But a pair of adopted children or identical twins will, especially during adolescence, have more similar religious beliefs if raised together (Koenig et al., 2005). Parenting matters!

Moreover, child neglect and abuse and even parental divorce are rare in adoptive homes. (Adoptive parents are carefully screened; biological parents are not.) So it is not surprising that studies have shown that, despite a slightly greater risk of psychological disorder, most adopted children thrive, especially when adopted as infants (Loehlin et al., 2007; van IJzendoorn & Juffer, 2006; Wierzbicki, 1993). Seven in eight adopted children have reported feeling strongly attached to one or both adoptive parents. As children of self-giving parents, they have grown up to be more self-giving and altruistic than average (Sharma et al., 1998). Many scored higher than their biological parents and raised-apart biological siblings on intelligence tests, and most grew into happier and more stable adults (Kendler et al., 2015; van IJzendoorn et al., 2005). In one Swedish study, children adopted as infants grew up with fewer problems than were experienced by children whose biological mothers initially registered them for adoption but then decided to raise the children themselves (Bohman & Sigvardsson, 1990). Regardless of personality differences between adoptive family members, most adopted children benefit from adoption.

image
Adoption matters As country music singer Faith Hill and late Apple founder Steve Jobs experienced, children benefit from one of the biggest gifts of love: adoption.
Frederick Breedon IV/Getty Images
Ryan Anson/Bloomberg/Getty Images

71

RETRIEVE IT

Question

2Lk91H8jOVlfdwkte/dRtBUVF0DgOEMK5PstTy7M86gG9phmB1A+c/3K8s6EiRw6zgIGRNHo46ps0mymeA633HTAs1yQ6EwyPiTX7QMqjdQuxoY6uLX0p5blke5B4pTqnxfjT1i68qfRCTEbBTFu6TOz+FpcDihpOhzT+ZMC4Cd+tYZgIY4rig==
ANSWER: Researchers use twin and adoption studies to understand how much variation among individuals is due to genetic makeup and how much to environmental factors. Some studies compare the traits and behaviors of identical twins (same genes) and fraternal twins (different genes, as in any two siblings). They also compare adopted children with their adoptive and biological parents. Some studies compare traits and behaviors of twins raised together or separately.

Gene-Environment Interaction

2-15 How do heredity and environment work together?

Among our similarities, the most important—the behavioral hallmark of our species—is our enormous adaptive capacity. Some human traits, such as having two eyes, develop the same in virtually every environment. But other traits are expressed only in particular environments. Go barefoot for a summer and you will develop toughened, callused feet—a biological adaptation to friction. Meanwhile, your shod neighbor will remain a tenderfoot. The difference between the two of you is an effect of environment. But it is also the product of a biological mechanism—adaptation.

“Men’s natures are alike; it is their habits that carry them far apart.”

Confucius, Analects, 500 B.C.E.

Genes and environment—nature and nurture—work together, like two hands clapping. Genes are self-regulating. Rather than acting as blueprints that lead to the same result no matter the context, genes react. An African butterfly that is green in summer turns brown in fall, thanks to a temperature-controlled genetic switch. The same genes that produced green in one situation produce brown in another.

interaction the interplay that occurs when the effect of one factor (such as environment) depends on another factor (such as heredity).

To say that genes and experience are both important is true. But more precisely, they interact. Imagine two babies, one genetically predisposed to be attractive, sociable, and easygoing, the other less so. Assume further that the first baby attracts more affectionate and stimulating care and so develops into a warmer and more outgoing person. As the two children grow older, the more naturally outgoing child may seek more activities and friends that encourage further social confidence.

image
Genetic space exploration In 2015, Scott (left) and Mark (right) Kelly embarked on a twin study that is literally out of this world. Scott spent a year orbiting the planet in the International Space Station. His identical twin, Mark, stayed on Earth. Both twins underwent the same physical and psychological testing. The study results will help scientists understand how genes and environment—in outer space and on Earth—interact.
Robert Markowitz/N.A.S.A/SIPA/Newscom

72

image
Figure 2.31: FIGURE 2.31 Epigenetics influences gene expression Life experiences beginning in the womb lay down epigenetic marksoften organic methyl molecules—that can affect the expression of any gene in the associated DNA segment. (Research from Champagne, 2010.)

What has caused their resulting personality differences? Neither heredity nor experience act alone. Environments trigger gene activity. And our genetically influenced traits evoke significant responses in others. Thus, a child’s impulsivity and aggression may evoke an angry response from a parent or teacher, who reacts warmly to well-behaved children in the family or classroom. In such cases, the child’s nature and the adult’s nurture interact. Gene and scene dance together.

Identical twins not only share the same genetic predispositions, they also seek and create similar experiences that express their shared genes (Kandler et al., 2012). Evocative interactions may help explain why identical twins raised in different families have recalled their parents’ warmth as remarkably similar—almost as similar as if they had been raised by the same parents (Plomin et al., 1988, 1991, 1994). Fraternal twins have more differing recollections of their early family life—even if raised in the same family! “Children experience us as different parents, depending on their own qualities,” noted Sandra Scarr (1990).

epigenetics the study of environmental influences on gene expression that occur without a DNA change.

Recall that genes can be either active (expressed, as the hot water activates the tea bag) or inactive. Epigenetics (meaning “in addition to” or “above and beyond” genetics), studies the molecular mechanisms by which environments can trigger or block genetic expression. Our experiences create epigenetic marks, which are often organic methyl molecules attached to part of a DNA strand (FIGURE 2.31). If a mark instructs the cell to ignore any gene present in that DNA segment, those genes will be “turned off”—they will prevent the DNA from producing the proteins coded by that gene. As one geneticist said, “Things written in pen you can’t change. That’s DNA. Things written in pencil you can. That’s epigenetics” (Read, 2012).

Environmental factors such as diet, drugs, and stress can affect the epigenetic molecules that regulate gene expression. Mother rats normally lick their infants. Deprived of this licking in experiments, infant rats had more epigenetic molecules blocking access to their brain’s “on” switch for developing stress hormone receptors. When stressed, those animals had above-average levels of free-floating stress hormones and were more stressed (Champagne et al., 2003; Champagne & Mashoodh, 2009). Epigenetics research may solve some scientific mysteries, such as why only one member of an identical twin pair may develop a genetically influenced mental disorder, and how childhood abuse leaves its fingerprints in a person’s brain (Spector, 2012).

Epigenetics can also help explain why identical twins may look slightly different. Researchers studying mice have found that in utero exposure to certain chemicals can cause genetically identical twins to have different-colored fur (Dolinoy et al., 2007). Such discoveries will be made easier by efforts such as the National Institutes of Health–funded Roadmap Epigenetics Project, a massive undertaking aimed at making epigenetic data publicly available.

image For a 7-minute explanation of genes and environment, see LaunchPad’s Video: Behavior Genetics, below.

So, if Beyoncé and Jay Z’s daughter, Blue Ivy, grows up to be a popular recording artist, should we attribute her musical talent to her “superstar genes”? To her growing up in a musically rich environment? To high expectations? The best answer seems to be “All of the above.” From conception onward, we are the product of a cascade of interactions between our genetic predispositions and our surrounding environments (McGue, 2010). Our genes affect how people react to and influence us. Forget nature versus nurture; think nature via nurture.

73

RETRIEVE IT

Match the following terms to the correct explanation.

Question

h4H3Drgee7aHfmM7/nXCnAWYGMKHZwdt/yyjGr4hR6xfKs+aACmSjL4yvb6UIcWlfQqRWV04SvFJPQrtZLYban8FFVvLN5BZ3huv/zBys1fYw5mwpHzwDcerLfdcr1HMaOLbX8lpylCaMb9SDIgakoRxUwz2eCKSZ2GC7BuxyY4SuQ+QQ4yIpz0qsBv7gKScRcR4i9Erv2uM3Lsj12GFlXR3YZdj2nSFaU3SMpK/20KsSGPhZLdYGtoBzSAW/ngydrEMb3GBLcw=

Evolutionary Psychology: Understanding Human Nature

2-16 How do evolutionary psychologists use natural selection to explain behavior tendencies?

evolutionary psychology the study of the evolution of behavior and the mind, using principles of natural selection.

natural selection the principle that those chance inherited traits that better enable an organism to survive and reproduce in a particular environment will most likely be passed on to succeeding generations.

Behavior geneticists explore the genetic and environmental roots of human differences. Evolutionary psychologists instead focus mostly on what makes us so much alike as humans. They use Charles Darwin’s principle of natural selection to understand the roots of behavior and mental processes. The idea, simplified, is this:

Natural Selection and Adaptation

A fox is a wild and wary animal. If you capture a fox and try to befriend it, be careful. Stick your hand in the cage and, if the timid fox cannot flee, it may snack on your fingers. Russian scientist Dmitry Belyaev wondered how our human ancestors had domesticated dogs from their equally wild wolf forebears. Might he, within a comparatively short stretch of time, accomplish a similar feat by transforming the fearful fox into a friendly fox?

To find out, Belyaev set to work with 30 male and 100 female foxes. From their offspring he selected and mated the tamest 5 percent of males and 20 percent of females. (He measured tameness by the foxes’ responses to attempts to feed, handle, and stroke them.) Over more than 30 generations of foxes, Belyaev and his successor, Lyudmila Trut, repeated that simple procedure. Forty years and 45,000 foxes later, they had a new breed of foxes that, in Trut’s (1999) words, were “docile, eager to please, and unmistakably domesticated. . . . Before our eyes, ‘the Beast’ has turned into ‘beauty,’ as the aggressive behavior of our herd’s wild [ancestors] entirely disappeared.” So friendly and eager for human contact were these animals, so inclined to whimper to attract attention and to lick people like affectionate dogs, that the cash-strapped institute seized on a way to raise funds—marketing its foxes as house pets.

74

image
Eric Isselée/Shutterstock

Over time, traits that give an individual or species a reproductive advantage are selected and will prevail. Animal-breeding experiments manipulate genetic selection. Dog breeders have given us sheepdogs that herd, retrievers that retrieve, trackers that track, and pointers that point (Plomin et al., 1997). Psychologists, too, have bred animals to be serene or reactive, quick learners or slow ones.

mutation a random error in gene replication that leads to a change.

Does the same process work with naturally occurring selection? Does natural selection explain our human tendencies? Nature has indeed selected advantageous variations from the new gene combinations produced at each human conception plus the mutations (random errors in gene replication) that sometimes result. But the tight genetic leash that predisposes a dog’s retrieving, a cat’s pouncing, or a bird’s nesting is looser on humans. The genes selected during our ancestral history provide more than a long leash; they give us a great capacity to learn and therefore to adapt to life in varied environments, from the tundra to the jungle. Genes and experience together wire the brain. Our adaptive flexibility in responding to different environments contributes to our fitness—our ability to survive and reproduce.

RETRIEVE IT

Question

xY+oB9znTCXb9qg0P8Dx5Er5ELNnn6gLnng5IG1i8w6jJrERaX99ZK+SuRnoWpQuFr+h7NGd+ZUXxRMBhJr9shZPxv1dYIoniXrwYtjnWrqUD0qIGOD81bwdb+AeMJjbiu9VIHYNc/2rQDm7AJhjWSxMVw3Nm61ULsZMqywwMJZEVXM4fi0vZeCKCvK5u5VAcFXyOeAD/AJAOV4gkbCxzOVx3O6DLYXS7U/NrmiM/d4=
ANSWER: Over multiple generations, Belyaev and Trut selected and bred foxes that exhibited a trait they desired: tameness. This process is similar to naturally occurring selection, but it differs in that natural selection is much slower, and normally favors traits (including those arising from mutations) that contribute to reproduction and survival.

Evolutionary Success Helps Explain Similarities

Our behavioral and biological similarities arise from our shared human genome, our common genetic profile. How did we develop our genetic kinship?

OUR GENETIC LEGACY At the dawn of human history, our ancestors faced certain questions: Who is my ally, who is my foe? With whom should I mate? What food should I eat? Some individuals answered those questions more successfully than others. For example, women who experienced nausea in the critical first three months of pregnancy were genetically predisposed to avoid certain bitter, strongly flavored, and novel foods. Avoiding such foods has survival value, since they are the very foods most often toxic to prenatal development (Profet, 1992; Schmitt & Pilcher, 2004). Early humans disposed to eat nourishing rather than poisonous foods survived to contribute their genes to later generations. Those who deemed leopards “nice to pet” often did not.

image
Differences grab attention, but our similarities run deep Lucky Diamond Rich, born Gregory Paul McLaren, is a New Zealand performance artist. He has held the world record for the most tattoos. But he also shares a common human concern for disadvantaged children.
Gareth McConnell/eyevine/Redux

Similarly successful were those whose mating helped them produce and nurture offspring. Over generations, the genes of individuals not so disposed tended to be lost from the human gene pool. As success-enhancing genes continued to be selected, behavioral tendencies and thinking and learning capacities emerged that prepared our Stone Age ancestors to survive, reproduce, and send their genes into the future, and into you.

Despite high infant mortality and rampant disease in past millennia, not one of your countless ancestors died childless.

As inheritors of this prehistoric legacy, we are genetically predisposed to behave in ways that promoted our ancestors’ surviving and reproducing. But in some ways, we are biologically prepared for a world that no longer exists. We face problems our ancestors could not imagine, such as how to create the perfect online dating profile or how to overcome the urge to constantly check our smart phones (Parkinson & Wheatley, 2015). We love the taste of sweets and fats, nutrients that prepared our physically active ancestors to survive food shortages. But few of us now hunt and gather our food. Too often, we search for sweets and fats in fast-food outlets and vending machines. Our natural dispositions, rooted deep in history, are mismatched with today’s junk-food and often inactive lifestyle.

75

Those who are troubled by an apparent conflict between scientific and religious accounts of human origins may find it helpful to consider that different perspectives of life can be complementary. For example, the scientific account attempts to tell us when and how; religious creation stories usually aim to tell about an ultimate who and why. As Galileo explained to the Grand Duchess Christina, “The Bible teaches how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go.”

EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY TODAY Darwin’s theory of evolution has become one of biology’s organizing principles. “Virtually no contemporary scientists believe that Darwin was basically wrong,” noted Jared Diamond (2001). Today, Darwin’s theory lives on in the second Darwinian revolution, the application of evolutionary principles to psychology. In concluding On the Origin of Species, Darwin (1859, p. 346) anticipated this, foreseeing “open fields for far more important researches. Psychology will be based on a new foundation.”

image
Jacob Hamblin/Shutterstock

Elsewhere in this text, we address questions that intrigue evolutionary psychologists: Why do infants start to fear strangers about the time they become mobile? Why are biological fathers so much less likely than unrelated boyfriends to abuse and murder the children with whom they share a home? Why do so many more people have phobias about spiders, snakes, and heights than about more dangerous threats, such as guns and electricity? And why do we fear air travel so much more than driving?

* * *

We know from our correspondence and from surveys that some readers are troubled by the naturalism and evolutionism of contemporary science. (A note to readers from other nations: In the United States there is a wide gulf between scientific and lay thinking about evolution.) “The idea that human minds are the product of evolution is . . . unassailable fact,” declared a 2007 editorial in Nature, a leading science journal. In The Language of God, Human Genome Project director Francis Collins (2006, pp. 141, 146), a self-described evangelical Christian, compiled the “utterly compelling” evidence that led him to conclude that Darwin’s big idea is “unquestionably correct.” Yet Gallup pollsters report that 42 percent of U.S. adults believe that humans were created “pretty much in their present form” within the last 10,000 years (Newport, 2014). Many people who dispute the scientific story worry that a science of behavior (and evolutionary science in particular) will destroy our sense of the beauty, mystery, and spiritual significance of the human creature. For those concerned, we offer some reassuring thoughts.

When Isaac Newton explained the rainbow in terms of light of differing wavelengths, the British poet John Keats feared that Newton had destroyed the rainbow’s mysterious beauty. Yet, as evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins (1998) noted in Unweaving the Rainbow, Newton’s analysis led to an even deeper mystery—Einstein’s theory of special relativity. Nothing about Newton’s optics need diminish our appreciation for the dramatic elegance of a rainbow arching across a brightening sky.

When Galileo assembled evidence that Earth revolved around the Sun, not vice versa, he did not offer irrefutable proof for his theory. Rather, he offered a coherent explanation for a variety of observations, such as the changing shadows cast by the Moon’s mountains. His explanation eventually won the day because it described and explained things in a way that made sense, that hung together. Darwin’s theory of evolution likewise is a coherent view of natural history. It offers an organizing principle that unifies various observations.

76

Many people of faith find the scientific idea of human origins congenial with their spirituality. In the fifth century, St. Augustine (quoted by Wilford, 1999) wrote, “The universe was brought into being in a less than fully formed state, but was gifted with the capacity to transform itself from unformed matter into a truly marvelous array of structures and life forms.” Some 1600 years later, Pope Francis in 2014 welcomed a science-religion dialogue, saying, “Evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve.”

Meanwhile, many people of science are awestruck at the emerging understanding of the universe and the human creature. It boggles the mind—the entire universe popping out of a point some 14 billion years ago, and instantly inflating to cosmological size. Had the energy of this Big Bang been the tiniest bit less, the universe would have collapsed back on itself. Had it been the tiniest bit more, the result would have been a soup too thin to support life. Astronomer Sir Martin Rees has described Just Six Numbers (1999), any one of which, if changed ever so slightly, would produce a cosmos in which life could not exist. Had gravity been a tad stronger or weaker, or had the weight of a carbon proton been a wee bit different, our universe just wouldn’t have worked.

What caused this almost-too-good-to-be-true, finely tuned universe? Why is there something rather than nothing? How did it come to be, in the words of Harvard-Smithsonian astrophysicist Owen Gingerich (1999), “so extraordinarily right, that it seemed the universe had been expressly designed to produce intelligent, sentient beings”? On such matters, a humble, awed, scientific silence is appropriate, suggested philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein: “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent” (1922, p. 189).

Rather than fearing science, we can welcome its enlarging our understanding and awakening our sense of awe. In The Fragile Species, Lewis Thomas (1992) described his utter amazement that Earth in time gave rise to bacteria and eventually to Bach’s Mass in B Minor. In a short 4 billion years, life on Earth has come from nothing to structures as complex as a 6-billion-unit strand of DNA and the incomprehensible intricacy of the human brain. Atoms no different from those in a rock somehow formed dynamic entities that produce extraordinary, self-replicating, information-processing systems—us (Davies, 2007). Although we appear to have been created from dust, over eons of time, the end result is a priceless creature, one rich with potential beyond our imagining.

REVIEW Genetics, Evolutionary Psychology, and Behavior

Learning Objectives

77

Test Yourself by taking a moment to answer each of these Learning Objective Questions (repeated here from within the chapter). Research suggests that trying to answer these questions on your own will improve your long-term memory of the concepts (McDaniel et al., 2009).

Question

qzg0NBdnWqTI0CJ3d+eVehGFMn1cFSypATFxDjKrwuehcdbpUDX8q5xp3i4/H6JpXnAl7miyrmkptBaSuQCUHnKPk6O+Pm4YfIyHfqIc/cxogyYlEKb7aQ6po4u1Fgk76lp4DZ7tuipQFzvafL5hPDrcsh3mTANEaicmrcVfL460jFs8uHg+gL1aV2wTI/ukRqikS+WbSE9TEHZ10SNoc7IVqIT/MMifD6VG9bJDwVlrb6FvcWPBHn0GsVbOIYyKCme/cnhuGToqrwYi9VwyAv2ULi7BO+Ei1YoBxax3qc1dL66AeaF45jNTBNUelmxBkK4BzxPQx0t+txRM
ANSWER: Genes are the biochemical units of heredity that make up chromosomes, the threadlike coils of DNA. When genes are “turned on” (expressed), they provide the code for creating the proteins that form our body's building blocks. Most human traits are influenced by many genes acting together. The human genome is the shared genetic profile that distinguishes humans from other species, consisting at an individual level of all the genetic material in an organism's chromosomes. Behavior geneticists study the relative power and limits of genetic (our heredity) and environmental influences on behavior.

Question

LJKYD+JppEHliNYDMmQdjYlDJCruKeLEevPOG8z1TyzfZj2D6LcNEu+DXzHROJBt21rP37bCFJUJ+ykrWKHnJRmvm2tQ+h8F4fjoIz6MzYn0zMoiSqlQ/DXmUCpJcujKRi3UaOq6XcQ/hyO8vi8fWJ3g8ADOo6jMJq11geH41z2izcdCPtV2RdiybAzULj6JD6anLQlMyi/rRz1uQYF3q7kcytMpHLCaElj59awAokcl3+zTvzRJjGFSELF4WERzkz2dYZA4mwNwR+ly/xrzxzXEVTCFevpvGAfELw==
ANSWER: Studies of identical (monozygotic) twins versus fraternal (dizygotic) twins, separated twins, and biological versus adoptive relatives allow researchers to tease apart the influences of heredity and environment. Research studies on separated identical twins maintain the same genes while testing the effects of different home environments. Studies of adoptive families let researchers maintain the same home environment while studying the effects of genetic differences. Heritable individual differences (in traits such as height and weight) do not necessarily explain gender or ethnic group differences. Shared family environments have little effect on personality, though parenting does influence other factors (such as attitudes).

Question

4P/IVnv+O+KlYgNP9Sqa/zFSFpuXImwAy9She9Hr5ZrUOa2hGSAtBKnqcRPSKBTdZRAyDgwBP+1g7bwVTzMjYUF6HqsiZqcGN84e67oNKgd5FPNQTuQcOz3ccqqMAglWIvgoYVfbxqBZpucYv7arnWZcBfDRLyqdYNQJswTCrf2lrAc9YoZiRA2zXi4Atdah8Z8BwqbMMgQMyrKNgB937QcbRkg=
ANSWER: Our genetic predispositions and our specific environments interact. Environments can trigger or block genetic expression, and genetically influenced traits can evoke responses from others. The field of epigenetics studies the influences on gene expression that occur without changes in DNA.

Question

qF7CmNirEcR1n0JiZm/lV72JFmUCVGNpenWQ2a4eNJB9ZxtCCdWZwyxrBJbsvTFQ3D1ukMMgrRyRE78vcm1/C20jb7zXYjV362w6F7wnBWYPX4gtwa1I7usxg6A3E5WGBkk+deJthmTttMsOcERgOMqlaW3FQ6XJ6T5Tfay4NC55d2sDoGRLqK2yrHve5kg936gJVyHidlfSjcCbiS/yHGus9if6/9KmE8RL+D0m7Y7UN1kSjZP+daGwIV8T6e09nuJg7c+Lh5MB7krx
ANSWER: Evolutionary psychologists seek to understand how our traits and behavior tendencies are shaped by natural selection, as genetic variations increasing the odds of reproducing and surviving in their particular environment are most likely to be passed on to future generations. Some variations arise from mutations (random errors in gene replication), others from new gene combinations at conception. Humans share a genetic legacy and are predisposed to behave in ways that promoted our ancestors' surviving and reproducing. Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is an organizing principle in biology. He anticipated today's application of evolutionary principles in psychology.

Terms and Concepts to Remember

Test yourself on these terms.

Question

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

Experience the Testing Effect

Test yourself repeatedly throughout your studies. This will not only help you figure out what you know and don’t know; the testing itself will help you learn and remember the information more effectively thanks to the testing effect.

Question 2.29

1. The threadlike structures made largely of DNA molecules are called k+kCsNZvTDPH8xN4sVObJA== .

Question 2.30

2. A small segment of DNA that codes for particular proteins is referred to as a ySbd0F5DbnhSSNjW .

Question 2.31

LL4eTtRK2baAF49oQnOz+no2RYg5pJX3lE/DfHlKyH/npu07bdrcnmXrJ4rrfnKtEt+QmmnMsYlhzOq4Mcq7zXi3FXjEb7CzUN2S9dj1LZx6AnPYqzHnTtZZpjuhWMT1BOUMfE+8EqCQOYy0snXnTRbFH5XDdN6+2amhfs49b1xhrNYj8VA6Z4VyzlETB+BY3g7cefbtgIAyPK3F6/DGlSeN2g3kihVQkXzLPnPu0r1mPY/SA6GibmHYvQknA8icfn07QBAbFxdfUtkt0k4Qjm9s7vk=

Question 2.32

jVIROTX0YlZi+YArk5Arw3amENMjHZ3ofH+YP7QFc9o0soOuDjQES/tn8EHpUkZEuNIxXI4V4I9jHPaBJ2a1bOvur7+4Zj7cAgsRCtXHpBLmloeFC+RN73T7UpAQlf9XhVJnqyR9B2uMsu7NS8r8Oe7oeL9vvtOUQLIu3AEo9Y+v1fvYaTjLrdO2qnadYOEIBlylM4ULPRjdsJtcLZqr7eg/oIl7YzdZHR3FGlkjBBTNCDdLpKs4WizFL76YtqWk+3JXYDDXq6PEQzgLUxadjzeTFOmaqpe9JisYsT6rMOvZ39bDbL3HcFwQVHFwGsBekERJJhWsJfl7b6LuAjhwGo4h5Ncipq+EfTJMrFn6/Hs8jtDHLwd60kpAbshWa5B0B1COPA==

Question 2.33

5. WR1zPUVKfPr0AoR7vB8hyA== twins share the same DNA.

Question 2.34

+mfaQUbRquFLkxbbJbUGIpAtw0dN805g2N6NgY0GOe+eiH53HhZw/CUHcK8nxw1C4qSxscnfMQUx0AXGzm4ySr2mqtGsqQ4k1Dvde+6MdLbwMvDrcwAatYRJEEJfmxYJkyHzwElriK9vBepLsCtXzHuPnrsRip7PKhJFTenp+Xyfgt1o6rba977wipUdYDDDmu9/ZHdR+UW1Ia1bSTRhxZZqC43ltWCkMtROLD+cGRAvxFXOGczgQPYp0ezM/PVRP86KsZrQhGr5lcWvXz1Ckwdf4IUL+xAJ4TTFrMHQq/J7mb+wieAJew2D+O8zihkel9iHE5oWBcm8HgKCTOdvUDPkEepHJOuEOh5xdYXa9YWcKKJLXhFCwcgOajl7YtCbS6Q/tiUxwZeit+2dOqF0ARXbAx52CB8XazRQO5K7/LSLCmG80Zzvhha0O2+pJJo1Fnkf6AVoJ8c3ckZ7duGv52F42v/wTnjORrDiRYWKAkFO6J+9xcJdCxpl+Fho7uVz0wh+Ed+tcGWQTFibxnjNQpBbAZmiNDd83YexKenQBkUp1yN71kB6vO4AtY2bf2kdzP8rZkXPVrpO6WXd/ovN2VaKPL+Oyyrv

Question 2.35

7. Epigenetics is the study of the molecular mechanisms by which wUiXDhRRr42iQ0bHEiezXKPKNa8= trigger or block genetic expression.

Question 2.36

8. Behavior geneticists are most interested in exploring hHFeOFcoHAArLLKejBbhdQ== (commonalities/differences) in our behaviors. Evolutionary psychologists are most interested in exploring /07LoXO8TyTDFXJ4qaYExixuhnY= (commonalities/differences).

Question 2.37

6Pn1P+mAeT/fHpvO5TLPB20JQ1Bvw/Y3jHnHmLQDRTgUnBqI+CqFEzy3NS5nxt2RI/DOCBo5HSfY95zlTOPi63ALKtDrecHE97nzOWOxNuSFob2UcdTseFxWpeA2Wv6Yl1x87a2nQEnpCgsy95OdYrx1QfmP6HscPBcYaVCEZGhljquxyqCJJpeK0GyMx4pUlbiNDLq+g9kk+GoCqEjA3rwwtIXe1S2n6cJ3ll+R6D+KpQ/+wL93ez4fC5SCwcSPrbudS7WQSnB47tNNWIf4oeVlgqFSBJwa0pi5/6osu/8gwPXOfeuP0/wXizASYRlANVWCvvFEVXLouT4+WK6JKTi9RPNnfxLt+feJidztLRraqCJb

Use image to create your personalized study plan, which will direct you to the resources that will help you most in image .