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People With "Warrior Gene" Better at Risky Decisions
- lukev 16y agoYet another sensationalist headline. Actual content - The gene MAOA-L has to do with neurotransmitters and there is a correlation between presence of the gene and the risk-aversion of 83 men in the study.
- hugh3 16y agoIndeed. And the bit about making "better decisions" is particularly rubbish; they make the more rational decision in one artificial situation which has been engineered (would you like $2 or a fifty fifty chance of winning $10 or losing $5?) so that the risky option is the more rational one.
- travisp 16y agoAnd the difference is very small. The risky option was chosen by 41% of MAOA-L carriers, and 36% of MAOA-H carriers. In other words, knowing which version of the gene someone had would tell you absolutely nothing about them.
- Estragon 16y agoIt's not as though you'd expect anything better from New Scientist.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- dguido 16y agoNeat, I wonder how long before it shows up in 23andMe tests.
- adriand 16y agoThis reminds me: did we ever get to see results from that "Are Entrepreneurs pirates?" test that ran on HN a while back? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1898317 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1898317