UVA alumni Dr. Kathryn Paige Harden stirs up the controversy in the scientific community as she prepares to publish her latest work, The Genetic Lottery.
(Headshot: Princeton University Press)
Behavior geneticist Kathryn Paige Harden now teaches psychology at the University of Texas in Austin, but she got her M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Virginia. Her new book, The Genetic Lottery, discusses how genes influence character traits and how they then affect life outcomes (criminality, income, education attainment, and the like). Though, of course, she doesn’t leave out the fact that society also plays a crucial role in how we develop and become enrolled in our community’s day-to-day structure. Amidst all the controversy, Harden believes that there is space in the middle between, ” ‘let’s never talk about genes and pretend cognitive ability doesn’t exist.’ “
For more information on what Harden studies and has found to be true, read one of her collaborative articles here: Vox.
