Three Laws of Behavior Genetics and What They Mean

By Eric Turkheimer. 2000

925 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Developmental and Educational Psychology, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d6da346fab335d2ad34cfbb5cd3ba10976c1bdcc

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In Developmental and Educational Psychology

In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Citations in the corpus

Genes, Evolution, and Personality (2001, background): “The primary consequence of this finding is that much contemporary social science research is uninterpretable if it does not incorporate the influence of genetic variation into its explanatory models (Harris, 1998; Rutter et al., 2001; Scarr, 1997; Turkheimer, 2000).”
Temperament as a unifying basis for personality and psychopathology. (2005, background): “Only relatively recently have multiple studies confirmed that genes account for roughly half of the observed variance in personality traits (e.g., Tellegen et al., 1988; Turkheimer, 2000).”
Thinking Clearly About Correlations and Causation: Graphical Causal Models for Observational Data (2017, methodology): “This example of genetic confounding is adapted from an example mentioned by Turkheimer (2000).”
Attitudes Towards Science (2018, background): “…concepts that are linked to genes is especially problematic because, as the first law of behavioral genetics reminds us, genes are involved in virtually all human traits (Turkheimer, 2000), but their impact is far more complex and involves a far more complex interplay of genes than people assume.”
The evolutionary genetics of personality revisited (2016, background): “, twin and adoption studies) show substantial genetic components [5 ] — a finding so robust that it has been enshrined as the first law of behavior genetics [6].”
Longitudinal Experience–Wide Association Studies—A Framework for Studying Personality Change (2020, background): “Personality traits, like almost every other individual difference variable in existence, have some genetic basis (Polderman et al., 2015; Turkheimer, 2000).”
Genetic and environmental influences on the positive traits of the values in action classification, and biometric covariance with normal personality (2007, neutral): “In most previous research, however, non-shared environmental inXuences have accounted for substantial variance (D'Onofrio et al., 1999; Turkheimer, 2000).”
The bright and dark sides of leader traits: A review and theoretical extension of the leader trait paradigm (2009, background): “To be sure, some of the unexplained variance is environmental, but researchers have struggled mightily to find environmental variables that explain much of the unexplained variance, leading to a " gloomy prospect " (Turkheimer, 2000): the non-shared variance may be highly idiosyncratic.”
Heritability in the Era of Molecular Genetics: Some Thoughts for Understanding Genetic Influences on Behavioural Traits (2011, background): “It is now generally accepted that behavioural traits are subject to genetic influences and genetic influences on behavioural traits are ubiquitous, so much so that Turkheimer (2000) enshrined this as the First Law of Behaviour Genetics.”
The evolutionary genetics of personality (2007, background): “Most personality psychologists now accept Turkheimer’s (2000) first law of behaviour genetics (‘everything is heritable’).”
Genetics and Social Inquiry (2009, neutral): “F or p er so na l u se o nl y. ANRV381-SO35-06 ARI 1 June 2009 18:1 “everything is heritable” (Turkheimer 2000).”
Moral Foundations Theory: The Pragmatic Validity of Moral Pluralism (2012, background): “by the discovery that nearly all personality traits are heritable (Bouchard, 1994; Turkheimer, 2000).”
Genetics and Intelligence Differences: Five Special Findings (2014, positive): “Finding that differences between individuals (traits, whether assessed quantitatively as a dimension, or qualitatively as a diagnosis) are significantly heritable is so ubiquitous for behavioural traits that it has been enshrined as the first law of behavioural genetics 7 .”