I was totally incensed by this article in the New York Times, largely because the science quoted -- what little there was in between the anecdotes -- was truly attrocious, ignorant of alternative views, and completely missing the point.
When I get a free moment I will provide some clear examples of why genetics is a factor in determining behavior but only in an environmental context. Until then Cognitive Daily and The Frontal Cortex seem to be confronting the issue quite ably.
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As promised I have a response to this article in the New York Times (I had to spend a couple days marshalling my evidence). I thought I would summarize some evidence about what we know from behavioral genetics so you could understand why I think this article was so wrong. I have tried to classify…
These kinds of articles annoy me, especially when they appear on the front page of The New York Times.
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For those poor souls who still believe in the behavior/genetics "divide", for the sake of science please lose that simplistic theoretical construct once and for all. Everything, at least having to do with living beings, is multi-factorial and infinitely complex. Approaching issues of behavior with complexity in mind makes the task of unraveling the mysteries of life so much more fun and rewarding, even if the that task is harder and the answers more elusive.