Biological determinism

{{silver}}{{Pseudosciencenav}}
{{cquote|Attempts to import biological theories into sociology, from social Darwinism of the 19<sup>th</sup> century to the race theories of the 20<sup>th</sup>, have a justifiably bad reputation.|||John Maynard Smith<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=wHphHUhDk7wC&pg=PA496&lpg=PA496&dq=survival+through+suicide+maynard+smith&source=bl&ots=XmJG249IPR&sig=mBCGotJjJOvuyadm7BOVKPZq6Vs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=H_5OT6vlIYre0QGYn8DcDQ&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=survival%20through%20suicide%20maynard%20smith&f=false Smith's review of E.O. Wilson's ''Sociobiology'' in ''New Scientist'', Aug. 28, 1975]</ref>}}
'''Biological determinism''' (often shortened to "'''bio-determinism'''" and used synonymously with '''biologism''' or '''genetic determinism''') is a common [[fallacy]] that implies that biology does and should completely dictate human behavior or the behavior of a certain subset of humans, such as black people or males. A frequent formulation is along the lines of, "Humans [[evolution|evolved]] to do this; it's [[naturalistic fallacy|natural]]." It is considered to be a form of [[pseudoscience]] or [[folk science]].

It is a fork of both the [[naturalistic fallacy]] (it '''is''' true that humans have biological differences, therefore there '''ought''' to be a difference in outcome) and the [[appeal to nature]] (it's '''natural''' for us to behave like this, so it's desirable to behave like this) when used as a normative. When used as a positive it is just factually wrong.

A large amount of scientific evidence has indicated that a great many human traits are influenced by both genes and non-genetic influences &mdash; although some traits, such as certain genetic diseases, are entirely genetically-determined. The opposite extreme to biological determinism is cultural determinism or "[[blank slate]]"-ism &mdash; the idea that genetics has ''no'' role in an individual's life. As just stated, this is also incorrect. Usually, "blank slate" believers do not seek to deny the genetic determination of, say, eye colour &mdash; so in practice, "blank slate"-ism is about human behaviour and psychology.

==Examples==
*"[[Women]] should [[Kinder, Küche, Kirche|remain in the home and raise children, not go out and work]]. That's why they are the ones that can get pregnant and bear the children.  It's the way it's supposed to be. [[Fun:Sandwich#As_a_Taunt|Now get back in the kitchen and make me a goddamn sandwich.]]"
*"Monogamy is silly &mdash; just look at the male penis! It's far bigger, proportionally, than the penis of any other primate, and the flared head is designed to scoop out the semen of competitors.<ref>[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=secrets-of-the-phallus "Secrets of the Phallus"], ''Scientific American''. See also [[Jerry Coyne]]'s [http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2011/01/16/evolutionary-psychology-for-the-masses/ Evolutionary Psychology for the Masses] for a debunking.</ref>  We're not designed to have just one partner."
*"We can abuse animals any way we please &mdash; we're the ones who evolved the most, after all, because Nature wanted us in charge."

==Philosophical problems with biological determinism==
On the [[moral]] level, this is a classic case of the [[naturalistic fallacy]], the notion that what is "natural" is also what is moral or desirable.  Biological determinism is also a violation of [[Hume's law]]; an "ought" cannot be derived from an "is." In this way, the problems with this approach should be immediately evident in the flawed reasoning underlying the idea.

However, the issue becomes more complex in the actual application of moral principles. Hume did not argue that facts have no bearing on [[moral]] decisions, but that facts needed to be combined with an [[ethical]] principle to be meaningful in making said decisions. Thus, a biological fact may have bearing on how we make decisions, but cannot ultimately decide our values.

The claim that biological determinism must not be true because of Hume's law itself is an [[argument from adverse consequences]]. No, 'is' does not entail 'ought'. What Hume's law actually suggests, assuming that some form of biological determinism is true, is that some biologically determined behaviors and drives may be morally wrong. It does not follow from this premise that those moral judgments are bad. But it does follow from this premise that certain forms of moral wrong are encouraged and sustained by biology.  

If this is true, then biology sets limits on the practicality and enforceability of moral judgments that implicate biologically determined behaviors. There's a limit to how saintly we can ever become, set by animal nature. Certain moral ideals will always be only imperfectly achievable. People will never fully internalize these moral beliefs, and a constant level of violations can be expected. There will be ongoing costs of surveillance and enforcement to enforce morality on biology. This account resembles most human societies with formal [[law]]s and [[law enforcement]]; it is a tragedy but not a disaster.  But this situation, if true, puts human perfectibility out of reach and is galling to the inventors of [[utopia]]s.  

By this logic, some critics of biological determinism have argued that the naturalistic fallacy may sometimes be wrongly invoked to avoid ethical considerations of biological research.<ref>David Sloan Wilson, Eric Dietrich, and Ann B. Clark. [http://evolution.binghamton.edu/dswilson/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/DSW14.pdf On the Inappropriate Use of the Naturalistic Fallacy in Evolutionary Psychology.] ''Biology and Philosophy'', 18: 669-682, 2003.</ref> It can sometimes be difficult to parse out the crude nonsense of biological determinism from useful science. For example, people of sub-Saharan [[Africa]]n descent are more likely to develop sickle-cell anemia, because a tendency towards malformed red blood cells was helpful in combating the rampant [[malaria]].<ref>Wellems, Thomas, Karen Hayton, and Rick M. Fairhurst[http://www.jci.org/articles/view/38307 "The impact of malarial parasitism"]. ''Journal of Clinical Investigation 119:9.</ref>  It might be uncomfortable to acknowledge such biological differences, but to dismiss them or paint them crudely as [[racism]] ("Are you saying all Black people are sickly?") is not helpful.

==Scientific problems with biological determinism==
===Statistical fallacies===
On the scientific level, it often comes packaged with numerous fallacies common to the fields of [[biology]], [[statistics]], and [[psychology]]. Biological determinism usually involves the [[composition and division|fallacy of division]], i.e. the application of a statistical trend to pre-judge an individual case. The fact that [[China|Chinese]] people tend to be short,<ref>[http://www.interbasket.net/news/4385/2009/09/average-height-by-country-males-20-years/ "Average Height by Country (Males <20 Years)"], ''Interbasket.net''</ref> however, does not mean that basketball superstar Yao Ming should hang up his shorts and go home. Other common fallacies generally revolve around misinterpretations of the biological science of the day.

===A "gene for" x===
The phrase "the gene for x" is often used in discussions of genetics. This terminology may be confusing for laypeople and is often misrepresented in [[popular science]]. It is rare that a trait will be monogenically determined. Take disease, for example. So far, only about two percent of diseases with a genetic component have been able to be linked to a single [[gene]].<ref>Eva Jablonka and Marion Lamb. (2005) ''Evolution in Four Dimensions'', [http://books.google.com/books?id=EaCiHFq3MWsC&printsec=frontcover#v=snippet&q=simple%20monogenic&f=false p. 58.]</ref> The expression of a genotype is usually described by a norm of reaction, i.e., the pattern of [[phenotype]]s produced by a single genotype due to environmental variation.<ref>[http://www.mun.ca/biology/scarr/6390_Norm_of_Reaction.html Norm of Reaction], Steven Carr, Memorial University</ref> This environmentally induced variability is known as "phenotypic plasticity."<ref>Douglas W. Whitman and Anurag A. Agrawal. (2009) [http://www.eeb.cornell.edu/agrawal/pdfs/whitman-and-agrawal-2009-Ch_1-Phenotypic-Plasticity-of-Insects.pdf What Is Phenotypic Plasticity and Why Is It Important?] Ch. 1 in ''Phenotypic Plasticity of Insects: Mechanisms and Consequences'' (ed. D. W. Whitman and T. N. Ananthakrishnan), pp. 1-63.</ref> Thus, the phrase "gene for" is usually shorthand for "a gene that increases the likelihood of inheriting trait x" and not a statement that trait x is monogenically determined.<ref>[http://www.bionews.org.uk/page_54781.asp Are There "Genes For" Traits?] John Dupre, BioNews</ref>

In one particularly egregious case, literally thousands of papers were written over several decades about ''SLC6A4'', a gene that an early analysis found had some correlation with clinical depression.  These followup papers focused on all levels of analysis from effects on brain chemistry, to correlating single factors of depression indices, and associating interactions with life events to the gene's variants.  A more thorough analysis in 2005 of a much larger population sample found no correlation whatsoever of the gene and its variants to depression.  None.  The evidence of every paper up to that point had found weak effect sizes, questionable, if technically significant p-values.  And no one had questioned whether there was an effect to find at all.  Nonetheless, papers continued to be published about it.<ref name="Depression-Gene">''The Atlantic'', [https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/05/waste-1000-studies/589684/ A Waste of 1,000 Research Papers], May 2019</ref>

===Conflation of heritability with genetic determination===
{{main|Heritability}}
Arguments for biological determinism typically conflate the term "heritability" with genetic determination of a trait. Heritability is simply a measure of phenotypic variance within a population that is able to be explained in terms of genetic as opposed to environmental factors. This means that a heritability estimate will change when the environment is changed. Heritability estimates also apply only to a specific population in relation to its environmental context. So, for instance, if a trait is said to be 60% heritable, it means that 60% of the variance of the trait for the population measured can be explained by genetic factors in the context of the environment in which the measurement was taken. It does not mean that the trait is 60% genetically determined in all times and all places.<ref>James B. Holland, Wyman E. Nyquist, and Cuauhtemoc T. Cervantes-Martinez. [http://www.usmarc.usda.gov/SP2UserFiles/ad_hoc/66452500Publications/Holland/HollandNyquistPltBreedRev03.pdf Estimating and Interpreting Heritability for Plant Breeding: An Update.] ''Plant Breeding Reviews'', vol. 22, 2003</ref><ref>NC Manson. [http://jme.bmj.com/content/30/6/601.full Presenting Behavioral Genetics: Spin, Ideology, and Our Narrative Interests.] J Med Ethics 2004;30:601-604</ref><ref>Robert C. Bailey. [http://www.springerlink.com/content/m1v170271j10x788/ Hereditarian Scientific Fallacies.] ''Genetica'', vol. 99, nos. 2-3, 1997, pp. 125-133</ref>  One particularly interesting case for how correlation with genetics should not be conflated with bio-deterministic effects is that the genes children ''do not inherit'' from their parents exhibit substantial predictive power about their life outcomes.  Specifically, genes '''not inherited''' from parents have an apparent 30% effect size on lifetime education attainment.<ref name="naturenurture">[http://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6374/424 The nature of nurture: Effects of parental genotypes] 
''Science''  26 Jan 2018:
Vol. 359, Issue 6374, pp. 424-428
DOI: 10.1126/science.aan6877</ref>

===The myth of a "state of nature"===
[[Political philosophy|Political philosophers]] such as Thomas Hobbes and more recently [[Robert Nozick]] have long envisioned humans as having lived in a "state of nature," free of culture, during pre-history. Discoveries in human evolution and [[paleontology]] have debunked such a notion. Lithic technology created by hominids can be found in the archaeological record dated to more than 2.5 million years ago. This demonstrates the beginning of cultural variation before anatomically modern humans even evolved.<ref>Jonathan Marks. [http://personal.uncc.edu/jmarks/pubs/2012biocultural.pdf The Biological Myth of Human Evolution.] ''Contemporary Social Science'' Vol. 7, No. 2, 139–165, June 2012</ref> Gene-culture co-evolution (also called [[dual inheritance theory]]) has also demonstrated the interaction of biology and culture. For example, [[lactose tolerance]] in humans originated independently with different genetic mutations that proved [[adaptation|adaptive]] to societies that domesticated cows and other dairy animals.<ref>Timo Vuorisalo, Olli Arjamaa. [http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/page2/gene-culture-coevolution-and-human-diet Gene-Culture Coevolution and Human Diet.] ''American Scientist'', Volume 98, Number 2, 2010</ref>

===Recent advances in biology===
Recent findings in a number of areas of the biological sciences have painted a picture of biology that is far more nuanced than biological determinism lets on. One area of research that has generated many new findings is [[evolutionary developmental biology]], or "evo-devo" in geek-speak, which concentrates on individual development and phenotypic change in relation to evolution. Studies of gene regulation and expression in evo-devo conceptualize genes as "switches" that may be turned on or off at certain points in time due to environmental factors.<ref>Gerd B. Muller. [http://www.biol.uw.edu.pl/empseb2010/images/artPigliucci1.pdf Evo-Devo: Extending the Evolutionary Synthesis.] ''Nature Reviews Genetics'', Nov. 2007</ref><ref>[http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/10/24/051024crbo_books1 Turned On], H. Allen Orr, ''The New Yorker''</ref> Epigenetic factors also play a role in inheritance. Epigenetic inheritance occurs in instances where something is inherited, usually patterns of gene expression, without any change to the underlying [[DNA]] or genetic structure. Inherited changes in DNA methylation and histone modification are mechanisms by which epigenetic inheritance can occur.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=EaCiHFq3MWsC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false Jablonka and Lamb 2005]</ref><ref>[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2003/aug/14/whats-not-in-your-genes/?pagination=false What's Not In Your Genes], H. Allen Orr, ''New York Review of Books''</ref>{{efn|This is indeed something of a quasi-[[Jean-Baptiste Lamarck|Lamarckian]] phenomenon, though [[natural selection]] is still in play in relation to these epigenetic factors, so it is not opposed to or a challenge to Darwinian evolution.}} While the phenomenon of [[neuroplasticity]] is not a recent discovery and has been known since the first half of the 20<sup>th</sup> century, current neuroscientific and neurobiological research into this topic continues to chip away at oversimplified notions of hard genetic determination of cognitive capacities and behavioral traits, which has been dubbed "neurogenetic determinism."<ref>Steven Rose. [http://www.amielandmelburn.org.uk/collections/soundings/02_53.pdf The Rise of Neurogenetic Determinism.] ''Soundings'', no. 2, Spring 1996</ref>

===Essentialism===
Research in [[cognitive science]] suggests that biological determinism may be in part the result of certain [[cognitive bias]]es, psychological [[essentialism]] in particular. The posited biological "essence" of humans has shifted over time, from blood to genes. These "essences" are thought to be responsible for determining a person's "innate" potential or constituting the individual's identity.<ref>Ilan Dar-Nimrod and Steven J. Heine. [http://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~heine/docs/geneticessentialism.pdf Genetic Essentialism: On the Deceptive Determinism of DNA.] ''Psychological Bulletin'', 2011, Vol. 137, No. 5, 800 – 818</ref>

===Excessive extrapolation===
People exposed to news articles about how genes influence one trait are much more likely to falsely conclude that other traits are '''also''' heavily influenced by genes afterwards.<ref>Morin-Chassé, Alexandre. 2014. Public (Mis)understanding of News about Behavioral Genetics Research: A Survey Experiment. ''BioScience'' 64(12): 1170–1177 DOI:[https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biu168 10.1093/biosci/biu168]</ref> [[American]] political [[conservatives]] in particular will react to scientific information showing the unlikelihood of genetic differences explaining racial differences in [[IQ]] by '''increasing''' their belief that racial IQ disparities are driven by genetic factors.<ref>Morin-Chassé, Alexandre, Elizabeth Suhay, and Toby E. Jayaratne. 2017. Discord over DNA: Ideological Responses to Scientific Communication about Genes and Race. ''Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics'' 2(2): 260-299 DOI:[https://doi.org/10.1017/rep.2017.17 10.1017/rep.2017.17]</ref> The general term for this kind of negative reaction to new information is known as the [[backfire effect]].

==History==
===Pre-scientific===
Before biology came into being as a natural [[science]] proper, forms of biological determinism existed but not in the same sense that the term is used today. In societies with hereditary social status or [[caste]], blood was a common biological metaphor for social status, e.g., "royal blood".

===European imperialism===
The beginnings of modern biological determinism grew out of European [[imperialism]] and the [[slave]] trade. Early biological taxonomies, such as [[Linnaean taxonomy|that of Carl Linnaeus]], imported the [[theology|theological]] notion of a [[Great Chain of Being]] in which people could be ranked hierarchically in a biological sense. This also often invoked [[polygenesis|polygenic]] theories positing different "[[race]]s" of humans, which were believed to be separate [[species]] or subspecies.

===The 19<sup>th</sup> century and the birth of social Darwinism and eugenics===
{{quote|Anatomy is destiny.|[[Sigmund Freud]]<ref>[http://german.about.com/library/blfreud.htm Sigmund Freud], about.com</ref>}}

In the early 19<sup>th</sup> century, theories of racial supremacy were increasingly [[rationalization|rationalized]] through "science." [[Phrenology]], especially the branch known as "craniology", i.e. the measurement of skull sizes, began to be used in what came to be called "[[scientific racism]]". Craniology was also used to rationalize [[sexist]] notions about the intellectual inferiority of women. Toward the mid-19<sup>th</sup> century, popular pseudoscientific works espousing unified theories of [[bigotry]] and [[social Darwinism]] became common. Social Darwinism, something of a misnomer, became popular before [[Charles Darwin]] even published ''[[On the Origin of Species]]''. [[Herbert Spencer]], for example, who was one of the best known alleged social Darwinists, borrowed pseudo-evolutionary [[Lamarck]]ian ideas.{{fact}} [[Racist]], [[sexist]], and [[classism|classist]] pseudoscience, however, reached its pinnacle with [[Francis Galton]]'s formulation of [[eugenics]]. Galton advanced the position known as "[[hereditarianism]]", in which capacities such as intelligence were alleged to be entirely inherited, innate, and immutable.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-234684 Hereditarian Ideology and European Constructions of Race], Encyclopedia Britannica</ref> With the rediscovery of [[Gregor Mendel]]'s work and the growth of genetics as a field within biology, genetic determinism and eugenics became the dominant forms of biological determinism.

===Inter-war and post-war period===
Much of the Western world remained in the grip of eugenic ideas up until [[World War II]], though eugenics programs began to lose traction just prior to the war as they increasingly came to be viewed as pseudoscientific. Anthropologists such as [[Franz Boas]] also challenged biological determinism. In addition, the [[Soviet Union]] and other [[communist]] countries suppressed or banned Darwinian evolution and Mendelian genetics in favor of the Lamarckian-derived [[Lysenkoism]]. The former ideas were denounced as "[[bourgeois pseudoscience]]s." During the post-war period, eugenics and biological determinism in general fell out of favor due to their association with [[Nazi]] Germany. This also coincided with the rise of the [[New Left]] and general counterculture of the 1960s, which led to a further backlash against biological explanations of human behavior.

===Resurgence of biological theories===
The 1970s and 1980s saw a revival of a more watered-down biological determinism. Two main scientific factors in this resurgence were the discovery of the structure of DNA by James Watson and [[Francis Crick]] in the 1950s, and the application of ethological research to humans in the form of sociobiology starting with the 1975 publication of [[E.O. Wilson]]'s ''Sociobiology: The New Synthesis''. The rightward shift in the political climate also contributed to this trend. Newer forms of biological determinism repackaged older eugenic and hereditarian ideas in newer, fancier jargon. Public debate over biological determinism erupted once again in the early 1990s. Many theories coming out of the field of behavioral genetics, neuroscience, and [[evolutionary psychology]] have been accused of biological determinism.<ref>Ronald F. White. [http://inside.msj.edu/academics/faculty/whiter/choice.htm Toward the "New Synthesis": Evolution, Human Nature, and the Social Sciences.] ''Choice'', Sep. 1998</ref> However, with the completion of the [[Human Genome Project]] in the 2000s, much speculation in this arena has been written off as "genome hype".<ref>[http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2010/06/14/the-human-genome-project-hype-meets-real/ The Human Genome Project: Hype Meets Reality], [[Respectful Insolence]]</ref>

====Behavioral genetics====

Critics of behavioral genetics have been writing papers in the past ten years that question the foundations of behavioral genetics. In his paper "The Question That Must Be Asked:Is Behavioral Genetics a Null Field?" psychiatrist [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=yQRvSN8AAAAJ&hl=en Steven Pittelli] writes:

{{cquote|For more than half a century, the field of behavioral genetics has touted studies claiming that differences in personality, intelligence and susceptibility to psychiatric disorders have a significant genetic component. Despite this long history of positive findings, however, little of substance has been garnered regarding how genes influence a particular trait, or by what mechanism. Moreover, the field has not been able to replicate their findings. Yet, the gene-hunting expedition continues unabated by its failures. Years of candidate gene studies purporting to demonstrate genetic correlations for behavioral traits have been refuted en masse. With little self-reflection, the field moved on to genome-wide association studies (GWAS). These studies have not been able to confirm the heritability claims derived from twin studies, instead citing minuscule “variance explained” calculations. Polygenic risk scores (PRS), derived from GWAS, have had little success in predicting traits. Despite the lack of success, researchers have promoted their findings to mainstream media, which then sensationalize and amplify the findings, creating a sense of breakthrough discoveries and a perception in the public that genetic differences play a significantrole in human character. This perception has been harmful historically and still affects our society in many ways, with a potential for further harm. It seems unlikely that any grand findings will be found in the future, leaving only ideological persistence as a driving forcefor continuing thispursuit. It is time to concede that behavioral genetics is a null field.<ref>[https://archive.ph/2TuZO The Question That Must Be Asked:Is Behavioral Genetics a Null Field?] Pittelli, Steven (2023, October 29) ''PsyArXiv Preprints''</ref>}}

=====Robert Plomin and Mainstream Science on Intelligence =====

British geneticist and science popularizer {{wpl|Adam Rutherford|}} is an outspoken critic of racism but also a supporter of behavioral genetics, going so far as to claim that "the trajectory of genetics has been one that tends towards progress."<ref>[https://archive.ph/VKENd Biological reality': What genetics has taught us about race] Adam Rutherford (April 17, 2025) ''BBC'' (Retrieved May 06, 2025)</ref> However he has failed to publicly address the issue of contemporary racialist geneticists. In 2014 Rutherford presented a radio documentary that featured [[Robert Plomin]].<ref>[https://archive.ph/u0TJJ Intelligence : born smart, born equal, born different] Wellcome Collection (2014) (Retrieved May 06, 2025) </ref> In a paper that Rutherford co-authored, published in March 2025, Plomin is cited three times.<ref>[https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-025-02150-4 Socio-economic status is a social construct with heritable components and genetic consequences] Abdellaoui, A., Martin, H.C., Kolk, M. et al. Nat Hum Behav (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02150-4</ref>

Sociologist {{wpl|David Gillborn}} describes Robert Plomin as "one of the principal figures in contemporary writing about genetics and education" and notes Plomin supported genetic claims about race by signing [[Linda Gottfredson]]'s defense of racialist pseudoscience, {{wpl|Mainstream Science on Intelligence||.}} Plomin addressed the issue in an interview while never repudiating racialist claims:
{{cquote|Robert Plomin, therefore, is on record as supporting a view of intelligence as a genetically-based trait that differs markedly, and persistently, between different racial groups, with Black people scoring well below White people on average. I can find only one instance where Plomin has subsequently addressed the Wall Street Journal article, namely the radio interview that gives this paper its ‘softly softly’ title (BBC Radio 4, 2015). Here is the relevant exchange between Plomin and the show’s host, {{wpl|Jim Al-Khalili}}:
<blockquote>
Al-Khalili: I know that you were one of 50 or so academics who signed a letter to the Wall Street Journal that endorsed the ''data'' in the book though not the authors’ ''conclusions''.

Plomin: Yes.

Al-Khalili: But why, why would you do that?

Plomin: Good question, I don’t usually do that. And it was just, in a way, just to be totally honest, I was feeling bad that I had ''kept my head down'' all the time and that was a point at which I felt it was important to stick my head above the parapet (…) I was really getting ''tired'' of psychologists just ''bashing'' anything genetic. And it was kind of like a frustration in a way, and just saying, you know, that you have to deal with the fact that genetics is important. In general I’ve felt softly softly is a better way to go but I got a lot of flak from people in the field for being a wimp.

Al-Khalili: So there came a point when you just felt you had to stand up for, for your field?

Plomin: Yeah. It’s a complicated issue about erm personalities and politics at the time. It’s a public understanding of science issue but it’s so complicated and so fraught, that’s why I kept my head down for so many years.

Al-Khalili: Have you regretted doing that since then?

Plomin: Well, I regret it to the extent it’s a distraction to my research. But I think the basic ''facts'' are there.. erm, about heritability of intelligence, and it’s just so unfortunate that some of the interpretations they made from that data are so, you know, some of them are quite bizarre and I would make just the opposite sorts of interpretations. (BBC Radio 4, 2015, original emphases)[16]<ref>[https://archive.ph/vCHqi Softly, softly: genetics, intelligence and the hidden racism of the new geneism] David Gillborn (2016) ''Journal of Education Policy'', vol. 31, no. 4, pp. 365-388</ref></blockquote>}}

==Contemporary biological determinism==
Biological determinism is often characterized as a conservative phenomenon due to its association with social Darwinism. However, the truth is more complex than that. The [[left-wing]] has endorsed theories of biological determinism in a number of cases. The most notable instance of this is the promotion of eugenics among Progressive Era reformers, even including presidents [[Theodore Roosevelt]] and [[Woodrow Wilson]].<ref>Thomas C. Leonard. [http://www.princeton.edu/~tleonard/papers/retrospectives.pdf Retrospectives: Economics and Eugenics in the Progressive Era.] ''Journal of Economic Perspectives''—Volume 19, Number 4—Fall 2005—Pages 207–224</ref> Biological determinism is often used in service of [[confirmation bias|bolstering prior beliefs]].

These complicated roots are reflected in the modern era: while [[liberal]]s are more likely to invoke deterministic explanations for [[sexual orientation]] and [[homosexuality]], conservatives are more likely to do so for socioeconomic issues such as class.<ref> Suhay, Elizabeth and Toby E. Jayaratne. 2013. Does Biology Justify Ideology? The Politics of Genetic Attribution. ''Public Opinion Quarterly'' 77(2): 497-521 DOI:[https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfs049 10.1093/poq/nfs049]</ref>    Meanwhile, research suggests that genetic essentialism is more common among supporters of Far-right parties in Sweden and Norway <ref>Morin-Chassé, A. (2025). Genetic essentialism among supporters of populist radical-right parties: Evidence from Sweden and Norway, ''International Journal of Public Opinion Research'', 37(1), edae058. [https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edae058]</ref> and among supporters of Far-right mouvements in the United-States.<ref>Sawyer, K., & Nam, H. H. (2024). The genetic essentialism of the alt-right. ''Research & Politics'', 11(2). [https://doi.org/10.1177/20531680241252465]</ref><ref>Sawyer, K., Bond, K. D., & Nam, H. H. (2025). System justification and the American alt-right. ''Politics, Groups, and Identities'', 1–37. [https://doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2024.2444901]</ref>

One of the proponents of biological determination in modern times, especially in regards to sexual selection, is a forum known as Sluthate.com. On the forum, it is often argued how much can be done to overcome your genetics. Some advocate plastic surgery. Others believe that one's genetics completely determines one's fate. Despite Sluthate.com being considered part of the [[Manosphere]], Sluthate.com rejects the majority of the Manosphere pundits as denying biological determinism. Some of the things that the forum argues are attractive to women are things such as having a sharper jaw line and height.{{cn}}

===Gender essentialism===
{{See also|Trans-exclusionary radical feminism}}

Gender essentialism was an issue that was discussed in the second wave of feminism around the 1960s to 1970s, it wasn't originally about TERF ideology but rather a claim often made that women end up in underprivileged positions due to biological reasons rather than social ones. If you remember any men saying "men are just more naturally inclined to be leaders", congratulations, this is why gender essentialism was challenged in the first place.<ref>[http://www.kyoolee.net/one_is_not_born_a_woman_-_wittig.pdf Monique Wittig ''One Is Not Born A Woman'' 1980]</ref> Gender bioessentialism is a common excuse used by TERFs to encourage the [[genocide]] of trans people, especially [[transmisogyny|trans women]]; they believe that gender is based solely on biological phenotype and nothing else, and that trans women will always behave like men and trans men will always behave like women, despite that being disconnected from reality.

The fact that gender essentialist arguments often justify sexism is one of the reasons that TERFs aren't taken seriously as a real feminist position.<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43154216 Charlotte Witt Vol. 23, No. 2, Feminist Perspectives on Language, Knowledge, and Reality (FALL 1995), pp. 321-344 (24 pages)]</ref>

==In science fiction==
In Aldous Huxley's ''Brave New World'', citizens of the World State are born into a caste system; however the World Controllers cannot be predetermined from birth, most are secretly societal outcasts who nevertheless support the system because they believe that abandoning it will doom humankind to self-destruction.

==As basis for hereditary social class and monarchy==
Hereditary social class often presumes biological determinism. For those at the highest levels of the society, the [[Monarchy|monarchs]], this is often through a mythical, typically divine ancestor, whose awe-inspiring legend serves as justification for lack of social mobility. In practice, many European monarchs were inbred due to {{wpl|cousin marriage}} and marrying other close relatives &mdash; not exactly a recipe for genetic fitness.

==See also==
*[[Discrimination]]
*[[Environmental determinism]]
*[[Just world hypothesis]]
*[[Noble savage]]
*[[Other]]

==External links==
*Richard C. Lewontin. [https://web.archive.org/web/20100610064636/https://tannerlectures.utah.edu/lectures/documents/lewontin83.pdf "Biological Determinism".] The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, University of Utah, 1982.
*Jonathan Marks. [http://personal.uncc.edu/jmarks/interests/Baltimore.html Scientific and Folk Ideas About Heredity.] The Human Genome Project: Reaching Minority Communities in Maryland, June 20-21, 1997, Baltimore, Maryland.
*Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis. [http://www.umass.edu/preferen/gintis/intergen.pdf The Inheritance of Inequality.] ''Journal of Economic Perspectives'', 16(3): 3–30.
*[http://www.ted.com/talks/alice_dreger_is_anatomy_destiny.html Is Anatomy Destiny?] Alice Dreger, TED talks
*[http://www.thersa.org/events/audio-and-past-events/2012/are-genes-us Are Genes Us?] Donna Dickensen, RSA events
*[http://www.councilforresponsiblegenetics.org/Projects/PastProject.aspx?projectId=11 Genetic Determinism], Council for Responsible Genetics

==References==
*Alexander, Denis R. and Ronald L. Numbers. (2010) [http://books.google.com/books?id=vQui2N4VxDkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=biology+and+ideology&hl=en&sa=X&ei=LG5QT9DcAubv0gHJpMmBDg&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=biology%20and%20ideology&f=false ''Biology and Ideology: From Descartes to Dawkins''.]
*Laland, Kevin N. and Gillian R. Brown. (2002) [http://books.google.com/books?id=2KcbFVBSxWYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=sense+and+nonsense&hl=en&sa=X&ei=-W5QT9WrDqfq0gG9z4S4DQ&ved=0CEUQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=sense%20and%20nonsense&f=false ''Sense and Nonsense: Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behavior.'']
*Rose, Steven, Richard C. Lewontin, and Leon Kamin. (1984) [http://books.google.com/books?id=s34WOgAACAAJ&dq=not+in+our+genes&hl=en&sa=X&ei=fG5QT83TN6LG0QGzyrX8DQ&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA ''Not In Our Genes: Biology, Ideology, and Human Nature''.]

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Discrimination]]
[[Category:Racism]]
[[Category:Sexism]]

Categories: Biology, Discrimination, Racism, Sexism