Genes matter. Environments matter. But what if neither really makes sense without the other? What if everything is ultimately gene-environment interaction? Economist Pietro Biroli joins us to unpack h...

By: Ralph Porneso. Ralph Porneso is a doctoral researcher at PROMENTA in the University of Oslo and is funded by the EU Horizon Project under grant no. 101073237. His area of research revolves arou…

What makes someone good at learning? Intelligence certainly helps. But as we grow up, curiosity, motivation, confidence, and interest seem to matter more and more. So does curiosity eventually beat in...

If someone tells you a trait is 40% heritable, what have you actually learned? And why do twin studies, SNP-based estimates, and family designs keep returning different numbers? Michel Nivard joins us...

By: Vincent J. Straub, Nadia V. Harerimana, Lyydia I. A. AlajääsköAll views expressed are those of the authors. In our recent Nature Human Behaviour Comment, “Early career researcher-led best pract…

Can society shape the human genome? What happens when people move to opportunity? Why do genes associated with educational attainment cluster geographically? And what happens to the gene pool when edu...

What is musicality? Why do some people seem to have more of it? Did Beethoven have the genes for it? And which musical genre is most associated with depression? These questions and many more are cover...

Personality psychologists were doing behavior genetics way before it was cool. In this episode, Rafael and Aysu sit down with Eivind Ystrøm, personality psychologist at the University of Oslo, to talk...

What do we mean when we talk about "non-cognitive skills," and what does genetics tell us about them? In this episode, our hosts visited Perline Demange to talk about the genetic architecture of cogni...

Why did you pick your partner? Just right place at the right time, or deliberate process? Whatever the case, it turns out that your partner is likely to be more genetically similar to you than we woul...

Why on earth would a political scientist do research in genetics? In this episode, our hosts met up with Sven Oskarsson in the supremely cozy Alinska Library at Uppsala university to let him spill the...

By: Stephanie von Hinke, PI ESSGN Wartime rationing during and after World War II is often remembered as a period marked by scarcity, strict regulation and unpalatable diets. Yet a large body of re…

Curious about epigenetics? Dive right in! In this episode, Laurel Raffington gets a visit from the Born and Raised crew in her beautiful office at the Max Planck institute in Berlin. We learn about al...

By: Asya Bülbül, ESSGN doctoral candidate at Uppsala universityAll views expressed are those of the author. As political science has matured, it has repeatedly absorbed tools and concepts from neig…

In this episode, our hosts visit economist Sjoerd van Alten in his office at the Vrije Universiteit. Why would an economist be interested in genetics? How does one use molecular genetic data to study ...

Background From a functionalist perspective, parenting behaviors have adaptive functions and are partly expressions of genetic variation. Maternal genes that have effects on children are often refer...

By: Nadia Harerimana, ESSGN doctoral candidate at MPIB.All views expressed are those of the author. When people ask what I study, I usually hesitate before answering. Saying “social science genetic…

In this very first episode of Born and Raised, hosts Rafael and Aysu visit behavior geneticist Abdel Abdellaoui in his office at the Amsterdam University Medical Center. They talk about the nature of ...

Educational achievement is a key predictor of later-life outcomes, including financial security, social mobility, health, and mortality. Knowing its familial determinants, such as genetic predispositi...

Guest lecture by Matt Keller

Some people call social science genetics a minefield. Others call it dangerous, even irresponsible. I call it the most promising field in life sciences.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...