A Global Problem…
Socioeconomic Inequality and Genetic Enhancement
Policies that justify and reinforce socioeconomic inequality create environmental conditions that have genetic effects on both current and future generations.
For example, while the term “genetic enhancement” may typically refer to the use of genetic modification techniques to improve specific characteristics or traits in humans, genetic enhancement can occur without bioengineering interventions.
Over the last decade, a substantial body of research has shown individual differences in cognition, affect and behavior are driven by an interplay between a person’s inherited DNA differences (genetic propensities) and environmental conditions (e.g., social, political, economic, technological, natural and biophysical).
As a result of this interplay, people create, evoke, arrange, modify and select into social environments in better alignment with their genetic propensities.172
When we make choices for preferred social environments and experiences, the choices we make are not independent of this interplay.
As psychologists Christopher Beam and Eric Turkheimer et al write: “People do not randomly select environments, but maneuver and position themselves into environments and milieus where they can thrive…”85
Psychologists Frank Mann, Colin DeYoung and associates explain: “…individuals are not randomly assigned to social-relational environments. Rather, individuals select into and evoke responses from environments based on their heritable characteristics.”224
Psychologist and genetic researcher Sophie von Stumm and associates reinforce the point that people “are systematically assorted to environments rather than randomly distributed across them”1 and that “children are assorted to environments in line with their genetic propensities.”10 For example, “Children’s differences in early life cognitive development are driven by the interplay of genetic and environmental factors.”10
As a result, economic policies that favor and reinforce selective socioeconomic environments enhance the advantages of those whose genetic traits are better aligned with those policies, reinforcing existing economic inequities.
Take educational attainment. Those in a position to shape how opportunities for advanced learning are organized in school systems can discount the value of learning environments that would benefit all comers, allowing them to maintain their socioeconomic advantages.
More to come…
Written by WGW
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