diagnosis, it’s there. A bad gene is a bad gene.”
There was some truth in the defence’s case; MAO-A has been associated with antisocial behaviours but only in individuals of European descent who were also abused in childhood. The gene does not cause violent behaviour without an environmental influence. Many individuals in the criminal justice system have had abusive childhoods and have still been found guilty for their crimes. MAO-A has also been linked to gambling, depression and irritability. Whilst the warrior gene sounds more dramatic than the irritable gene when reported in the press, the name is glamorised and unhelpful in elucidating the public. Most importantly, 34% of Europeans have the warrior gene yet we do not see 34% of individuals committing murder – genes alone do not drive behaviour.
‘whole industries have emerged that exploit these misconceptions’
The prevalence of this myth is having real impacts. Whilst the media maintains public misconceptions of genes it may not be the root of the problem. The education system also teaches children about genetic determinism. Up and down the UK pupils learn about Mendel and his peas; a simplistic introduction to inheritance that suggests genetic influences are all or nothing. There are few traits which have a binary genetic influence (eye colour being one of the exceptions). Most genetic effects are much more complex, and a failure to appreciate this complexity that may lead us astray.
The public are being misled because the truth about genetic behavioural studies is deemed either too boring or too difficult. However, many exciting and relevant studies are taking place all the time - including here at the University of Bristol where links between genetics and online behaviour are being investigated. Behavioural genetics has the potential to be misapplied, but it is also a tremendously exciting avenue of research. We should not let the complexity allow us to be inappropriately reductionist in reporting these findings.
Crazy Like Us: the globalisation of the American psyche Layla Amawi reviews Ethan Watters’ exploration of the flaws in Western ideas about mental illness
I
n Crazy Like Us, American journalist Ethan Watters recounts case studies from his journeys throughout Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Zanzibar and Japan. At face value, the stories he tells of mental health in these countries are fascinating, but beneath the surface lurks a serious warning.
Americans are flattening the landscape of the human psyche itself.” Essentially, that categorizing mental illnesses in the way that has become standard for experts in the west, prioritizing certain symptoms, and laying out a particular prognosis can negatively influence the course of illnesses.
Watters argues that Americans have been mass producing and exporting ideas about how mental illnesses exist and how they should be healed. “The golden arches do not represent the most troubling impact on other cultures; rather, it is how the
‘he asks readers to challenge their own core beliefs’ 8
