The inconvenient truth about genetics and success

By KATHRYN PAIGE HARDEN

| NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |

APR 19, 2019 | 11:11 AM

  

By reminding us that we don’t have perfect control over every aspect of our lives, genetics can encourage us to be more compassionate of ourselves and more tolerant of the differences we see in other people. Some of us are born with genes that make us struggle to lose weight and keep it off. This was the conclusion of a new genetics study published this week, where scientists analyzed information from over 2 million locations in people’s genetic code. Middle-aged adults who had the highest genetic risk were 25 times more likely to be obese than those who had the lowest genetic risk.

This type of research has been greeted with cheers by activists fighting fat phobia: If body weight is seen as genetic, then heavier people might be less stigmatized as lazy or unable to control themselves.

We’ve seen activists embrace other types of genetic research before. The National Alliance on Mental Illness calls genetics "one of the most exciting” areas of research. Many in the LGBTQ community have embraced the message that people have diverse sexual orientations and gender identities because they were "born this way.” Temple Grandin, who was named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world for bringing attention to the unique strengths of people with autistic spectrum disorders, readily discusses how genes might shape the autistic brain.

By reminding us that we don’t have perfect control over every aspect of our lives, genetics can encourage us to be more compassionate of ourselves and more tolerant of the differences we see in other people.

But genes don’t just shape our physical and mental health. They also shape our success in life. Research in the emerging field of "sociogenomics” has shown that, in samples of European-ancestry people, those with certain genes are more likely to stay in school, to have prestigious jobs, to make more money, to be upwardly mobile relative to their parents, to make better financial decisions, to be wealthier at retirement, to move into nice neighborhoods, and to move to a new country. Using the exact same research techniques as the new study on obesity, sociogenomic studies also measure millions of locations in the human genome to construct "polygenic scores.” These scores can predict major milestones in life, like graduating from college, as well as parental income can. And, unlike parental income, polygenic scores can predict which sibling in a family will be more successful.

The fact that our genes influence our lives certainly doesn’t mean that genes determine our lives. Even among people who have the highest genetic risk for obesity, 17% had a normal weight. And even among people who have the lowest genetic propensity to do well in school, 11% still graduated from college. Our genetics don’t seal our fates. But even though genes don’t fully determine our life outcomes, modern science has made it impossible to pretend that we are born as blank slates.

Unlike the news about genetic influence on obesity, however, genetic research on education and income is not likely to be greeted with cheers. Liberals (and I count myself as one) are especially suspicious of any research that links biology with social status. There are good reasons for this suspicion. In the United States, eugenic ideas were used to justify terrible policies, including forcibly sterilizing tens of thousands of people. Even today, far-right extremists jump on genetic research to promote their racist ideas. Eager not to give the far right any ammunition, well-meaning people often refuse to accept that genes play any role in understanding who succeeds in education, in the job market and in other walks of life.

Unfortunately, this refusal feeds the myth that America is a meritocracy, where hard work and effort are enough to get ahead.

In reality, many of us are privileged in various ways, and our paths in life have been smoothed by that privilege. Of course, having privilege doesn’t mean that you’ve never faced struggle or adversity. You can be privileged and still have worked really hard. But as a white, cis-gendered, heterosexual woman, I recognize that these characteristics have advantaged me in life. In a fat-phobic society that idealizes unrealistic beauty standards, having genes that make it easier for you to maintain a low weight is also a form of privilege that works to your advantage. And in a society that prizes being good at school above almost all other skills and talents, having genes that make it easier for you to achieve academically is yet another form of privilege.

Reminding ourselves of our privilege makes it harder for us to be smugly self-satisfied when things go our way and harder to condemn people for just not trying hard enough. Now, new genetic research is showing that our DNA can be another source of privilege, and it’s time to acknowledge it.