The Genetic Lottery Quotes

“But even if we were entirely successful at eliminating inequalities of outcome associated with being born into wealth or privilege, the inequalities that remain would not be purged of luck. There would still be another type of luck lurking in the background: genes. This is true not only of standardized test performance and IQ scores. Even appealing to so-called “character” traits (grit, perseverance, resourcefulness, motivation, curiosity, or any other non-cognitive skill) doesn’t get you out of grappling with genetics. These traits, too, are shaped by genetic differences between people. There is no measure of so-called “merit” that is somehow free of genetic influence or untethered from biology.”
― Kathryn Paige Harden, The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality

“We are living in a golden age of genetic research, with new technologies permitting the easy collection of genetic data from millions upon millions of people and the rapid development of new statistical methodologies for analyzing it. But it is not enough to just produce new genetic knowledge. As this research leaves the ivory tower and disseminates through the public, it is essential for scientists and the public to grapple with what this research means about human identity and equality. Far too often, however, this essential task of meaning-making is being abdicated to the most extreme and hate-filled voices. As Eric Turkheimer, Dick Nisbett, and I warned:

If people with progressive political values, who reject claims of genetic determinism and pseudoscientific racialist speculation, abdicate their responsibility to engage with the science of human abilities and the genetics of human behavior, the field will come to be dominated by those who do not share those values.”
― Kathryn Paige Harden, The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality

“His reasoning is this: We consider someone as having choice and control over an outcome if they could have done differently. If people who share the same accidents of birth—who have the same genetics (with the aforementioned qualifications) and the same family upbringing—never actually do turn out differently, it becomes harder to imagine that they could have done so.”
― Kathryn Paige Harden, The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality

“Don’t mistake being lucky for being good.”
― Kathryn Paige Harden, The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality

“At the same time, the garden example also illustrates a point that is often lost in the rhetoric about “closing gaps” between students in education:15 the well-resourced garden, which provides identical environments to all its plants, might have taller plants on average, but also plants that are more unequal in their heights.”
― Kathryn Paige Harden, The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality