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Are Human Genetics An Unfair Lottery? - Paige Harden | Modern Wisdom Podcast 387

Kathryn Paige Harden is a psychologist and behavioural geneticist, Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and an author. The goal of social equality is to give everyone a fair opportunity to achieve in life. But even if advantages and disadvantages in the environment are equalised, all of us are starting at different positions genetically because we get far more than just environment from our parents. Paige is trying to work out how DNA can be integrated into social equality. Expect to learn why people are so uncomfortable talking about behavioural genetics, why your failures might be less of your fault than you think, why hitting puberty early makes girls bad at maths, whether genetic markers for working hard should be accounted for when evening out the playing field and much more... Sponsors: Join the Modern Wisdom Community to connect with me & other listeners - https://modernwisdom.locals.com/ Get over 37% discount on all products site-wide from MyProtein at http://bit.ly/modernwisdom (use code: MODERNWISDOM) Get 5 days unlimited access to Shortform for free at https://www.shortform.com/modernwisdom (discount automatically applied) Extra Stuff: Buy The Genetic Lottery - https://amzn.to/3FKqazM Follow Paige on Twitter - https://twitter.com/kph3k Get my free Reading List of 100 books to read before you die → https://chriswillx.com/books/ To support me on Patreon (thank you): https://www.patreon.com/modernwisdom #behaviouralgenetics #achievement #success - 00:00 Intro 02:47 Why is Behavioural Genetics so Uncomfortable? 09:15 Defining Social Equality 15:22 How Genes Affect Education 22:13 Proposals for Progress 33:37 Surprising Genetic Correlations 44:40 Dealing With Unfair Equality 56:23 The Ethics of Altering Genetics for Equality 1:02:33 Is Communism Genetics-Friendly? 1:06:29 Where to Find Paige - To support me on Patreon (thank you): http://www.patreon.com/modernwisdom Listen to all episodes on audio: Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2MNqIgw Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2LSimPn - Get in touch in the comments below or head to... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact/

Paige HardenguestChris Williamsonhost
Oct 20, 20211h 7mWatch on YouTube ↗

At a glance

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Genetic Lottery, Social Equality, And Rethinking Meritocracy In Modern Life

  1. Paige Harden discusses how behavioral genetics reveals meaningful genetic influences on education, intelligence, mental illness, and life outcomes, and why this unsettles deep intuitions about agency, merit, and equality.
  2. She argues that acknowledging genetic luck doesn’t undermine liberal egalitarianism; instead, it should increase gratitude among the successful, compassion for the less fortunate, and support for robust social safety nets.
  3. Harden emphasizes that ignoring genetics has led to flawed social science and ineffective educational interventions, and she proposes systematically integrating DNA data into research and policy evaluation while rejecting genetic determinism.
  4. The conversation ranges from homelessness and mental illness to adolescence, status, work ethic, and whether we should ever aim to ‘flatten’ genetic differences, ultimately defending genetic diversity and a pluralistic notion of valued talents.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Genetic differences meaningfully shape educational and psychological outcomes, but they are not destiny.

Polygenic scores correlate with college completion and other outcomes at roughly the same strength as family socioeconomic status, showing genes matter, yet their effects are probabilistic and always mediated by environments.

Ignoring genetics leads to misleading social science and weaker interventions.

Most parenting and education research assumes children are genetically identical, so it over-attributes outcomes to environments; Harden argues researchers and policymakers should routinely include genetic data to identify what truly causes change and for whom.

Recognizing genetic luck should deepen gratitude and solidarity, not fatalism or elitism.

Success is scaffolded by both environmental and genetic luck; seeing this undermines the self-made narrative, supports more generous safety nets, and reframes inequality as largely undeserved rather than fully earned.

Basic goods tied to human dignity should not depend on educational or economic success.

Harden contends that healthcare, housing security, and freedom from extreme financial anxiety should be guaranteed regardless of one’s academic attainment or ‘productivity,’ using other high-income countries as proof this needn’t be ‘Soviet leveling’.

Our systems conflate the value of traits with the value of people.

Society currently over-rewards abstract cognitive skills and under-rewards manual, emotional, and service labor, even though all are socially indispensable; this reflects social choice, not natural law, and can be reorganized.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

It just turns out that if you repeatedly say true things in this space, that seems to rile up pretty strong feelings on both sides of the political spectrum.

— Paige Harden

People can feel enraged when you say, ‘You worked for it, but also that work was scaffolded by all of this luck… some of that luck is your embodied biology.’

— Paige Harden

There is no separating effort from luck. It’s turtles all the way down.

— Paige Harden

The problem isn’t whether or not an unhoused person can use a tent; it’s that they don’t have a house.

— Paige Harden

What I want is a society that is more like a meadow than a lawn of grass.

— Paige Harden

Why behavioral genetics is emotionally and politically controversialGenetic influences on education, intelligence, and life outcomesMeritocracy, luck, and the moral meaning of success and desertSocial equality, safety nets, and basic human dignityUsing genetic data in research, education policy, and interventionsHomelessness, mental illness, and structurally produced inequalityStatus, work, adolescence, and how society values different traits and skills

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