June 20, 2013
Does success in education rely on having certain genes?
If you have read media stories recently that say ‘yes’, you’d better read this article from the Genetic Literacy Project …
Atakohu Middleton is an Auckland journalist with a keen interest in the way the media uses/abuses data. She happens to be married to a statistician. See all posts by Atakohu Middleton »
I am always worried about explanations that are both simple and that justify current social structures. Like the divine right of kings, I think that the over-interpretation of these genetic studies can lead to forgetting to focus on education.
And all of that assumes that the SNPs are causal in a sense of improved ability as opposed to social constructs that lead to success (i.e. taller height). An R^2 of < 1% can be due to very small effect sizes.
12 years ago