DNA Is Not Destiny : The Remarkable, Completely Misunderstood Relationship Between You and Your Genes

First Title Value for Searching:

Personal Author:

Heine, Steven J.

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

344 pages ; 25 cm.

Summary:

One of the world's leading cultural psychologists debunks the hype surrounding DNA testing and puts to rest our mistaken anxieties about our genes.--So why do we continue to buy into the belief that our genes control our destiny? Heine argues that we are psychologically ill equipped to deal with DNA results, repeatedly falling into predictable biases switch-thinking, essentialism, fatalism, negativity dominance, and more that mold our thinking about the information we receive. Heine shares his research and his own genome-sequencing results to not only to set the record straight regarding what your genes actually reveal about your health, intelligence, ethnic identity, and family, but to also help you counteract these insidious cognitive traps. His fresh, surprising conclusions about the promise, and limits, of genetic engineering and DNA testing upend conventional thinking and reveal a simple, profound truth: your genes create life but they do not control it.

Contents:

How genes make you who you are -- Your genes, your soul? -- The oracle at 23andme: -- Genetic testing and disease -- Born this way: -- Thinking about gender and sexual orientation -- Race and ancestry: -- How our genes connect and divide us -- Essences and the seductive allure of eugenics -- A brave new world: -- Engineering better essences -- Harnessing our essentialist impulses: -- How should we think about genes?

Subject Term:

Publication Info:

New York : W.W . Norton & Company, [2017]

Subject:

Genes

Human genetics

Molecular genetics

Genetic engineering

Units of heredity

Units of inheritance

Designed genetic change

Engineering, Genetic

Gene splicing

Genetic intervention

Genetic surgery

SAILS ISBN:

9780393244083

Available:

Library	Shelf Number	Shelf Location	Status
Searching... Foxboro - Boyden Library	572.86 HEINE	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

One of the world's leading cultural psychologists debunks the hype surrounding DNA testing and puts to rest our mistaken anxieties about our genes.

Do you fear what might be lurking in your DNA?

Well, now you can find out, and you most likely will. Scientists expect one billion people to have their genomes sequenced by 2025, and as the price drops it may even become a standard medical procedure. Yet cultural psychologist Steven Heine argues that the first thing we'll do upon receiving our DNA test results is to misinterpret them completely. We've become accustomed to breathless media coverage about newly discovered "cancer" or "IQ" or "infidelity" genes, each one promising a deeper understanding of what makes us tick. But as Heine shows, most of these claims are oversimplified and overhyped misinterpretations of how our DNA really works. With few exceptions, it is a complex combination of experience, environment, and genetics that determines who we are, how we behave, and what diseases will afflict us in the future.

So why do we continue to buy into the belief that our genes control our destiny? Heine argues that we are psychologically ill equipped to deal with DNA results, repeatedly falling into predictable biases--switch-thinking, essentialism, fatalism, negativity dominance, and more--that mold our thinking about the information we receive. Heine shares his research--and his own genome-sequencing results--to not only to set the record straight regarding what your genes actually reveal about your health, intelligence, ethnic identity, and family, but to also help you counteract these insidious cognitive traps. His fresh, surprising conclusions about the promise, and limits, of genetic engineering and DNA testing upend conventional thinking and reveal a simple, profound truth: your genes create life--but they do not control it.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Heine, a professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia, explores the "psychological biases" that prevent people from thinking effectively about the implications of breakthroughs in genetics. He makes the case that far too many people hold the "belief that our genes control our lives," adding, We are genetic fatalists." Heine tasks himself with educating his audience about the errors inherent in this perspective because "people with greater understanding about genetics are less likely to agree that genes determine life outcomes, less likely to subscribe to eugenic beliefs, and are in general less racist and less sexist." He makes three straightforward and interconnected points: that there is rarely a one-to-one correspondence between a gene and a behavior; that people assume that an individual's genes define the essence of their being; and that the public is breathtakingly ignorant about genetics in general. Heine ranges broadly, discussing both historical and ethical concerns, and draws heavily on social psychology research to investigate how people's beliefs about the power of genes influence their behavior. Heine also makes a strident critique of the direct-to-consumer genetic testing industry and a robust defense of most genetically modified organisms. This is an enjoyable and informative, if uneven, discussion of the role genes play in our everyday lives. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review

Does the human genome include a thread for the likelihood of falling for hype? If it does, then it would be fine vindication for this sharp book on the limitations of genetics in understanding what makes us tick.What makes people tall? What makes people smart? What makes some people more likely to develop breast cancer than others? The common shorthand these days would be to lay blame or responsibility, depending on the matter at hand, on one's genetic makeup. However, as Heine (Social and Cultural Psychology/Univ. of British Columbia; Cultural Psychology, 2007) writes, that's a two-edged sword of an answer, for while understanding genetic issues has led to some moments of dtente in the culture warse.g., acceptance of homosexuality as an expression of biologyit is also not necessarily complete. For instance, he argues, genetics itself cannot fully explain why people grow taller when their diets improve or why people raised by affluent adopted parents score higher on IQ tests than their less affluent peers. Such issues can be thorny, and to his credit, Heine does not shy away from them even as he takes on the popularity of consumer-level genomics to predict the propensity for disease, which he reckons to be about as accurate as "the fortune-teller down the street, and at least she isn't claiming any scientific foundation to her predictions." The author is generally affable, but he also is impatient with pseudo-science; he writes, for instance, that the more people actually know of genetics the less likely they are to be worried about genetically modified food, while terms such as the "breast cancer gene" or the "height gene" are worse than misnomers, since many more genes than one are implicated. To increase a baby's height, by Heine's reckoning, you would need to effect "almost 300,000 genetic alterations to the embryo, and you would still only be halfway there." An accessible contribution to what the author calls "genetic literacy" and a satisfyingly hard-edged work of popular science. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

1 Introduction	p. 1
2 How Genes Make You Who You Are	p. 11
3 Your Genes, Your Soul?	p. 39
4 The Oracle at 23andMe: Genetic Testing and Disease	p. 61
5 Born This Way: Thinking about Gender and Sexual Orientation	p. 97
6 Race and Ancestry: How Our Genes Connect and Divide Us	p. 129
7 Essences and the Seductive Allure of Eugenics	p. 167
8 A Brave New World: Engineering Better Essences	p. 209
9 Harnessing Our Essentialist Impulses: How Should We Think about Genes?	p. 245
Acknowledgments	p. 269
Notes	p. 271
Index	p. 333

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Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Kirkus Review

Table of Contents