Wednesday, July 11, 2018

A human BG debate: can it happen?

I am trying to organize a debate about human quantitative behavior genetic studies and whether they are fatally flawed or not. Originally it was just supposed to be about classical twin studies, but then I decided, why limit the scope to that? It's not like human BGists* only ever do such studies- they have plenty of other research designs (reared apart twins, families, adoption, etc.). So I decided I'd start emailing people to ask if they'd be willing to participate in a one-on-one debate about whether human BG studies have value or are totally worthless. Here I will be listing everyone I've emailed to ask about this potential debate and their responses (if any).


  1. Robert Plomin (BGist) - Automated email reply saying he'll be "away from the office with only sporadic email contact until 15 July 2013." Yes, seriously. He hasn't updated his email in FIVE YEARS!!!
  2. Jay Joseph (critic) - He responded the same day! He said "I might be interested in a debate, depending on how the details work out. But this Saturday is too soon, as these things require much more time and planning...Thanks for your interest, and please let me know what develops as far as a debate is concerned. For several reasons, I doubt that many twin researchers would want to debate me."**
  3. Irwin Waldman (BGist) - He responded the same day! He said yes, but that he's on a family vacation now and won't be able to participate for a week or so.
  4. Evan Charney (critic) - haven't heard back yet
Notes
*My abbreviation for "behavior geneticist". Hope it catches on.
**I did mention maybe doing it this Saturday in the first email I sent Joseph, when planning of this potential event was still even more tentative than it is now. But now it is obvious that will definitely be too soon, for 2 reasons. One is that as Joseph pointed out this takes a lot of time to plan successfully-way more than just a few days. The other is that as I note below Waldman won't be able to debate for like a week, and he might be the only BGist I can get to represent the field, so picking Saturday is a bad idea for that reason too.

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