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I get the sentiment but the title is misleading. There IS a significant genetic contribution, but it's polygenic.
by buboard 7y ago
I get the sentiment but the title is misleading. There IS a significant genetic contribution, but it's polygenic.
- superpermutat0r 7y agoHow did they discover that, given the curse of dimensionality? If the genetic contribution is significant, how do they know it's not some unreproducible model that is significant due to it having too many parameters (thousands of genes)? Or do they have a theoretical model of homosexuality and took just the genes that the model predicts should point to it?
- buboard 7y agostatistics
- qzx_pierri 7y ago[citation needed]
- acdha 7y agoIt’s a scientific study so the citation is literally present in the story if you want to learn what they did: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aat7693 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aat7693
- superpermutat0r 7y agoCurse of dimensionality and statistical significance are terms I used in my comment. I'm quite aware of the statistical methods and am a bit confused about how they avoid the dimensionality problem. I'm pretty sure I could get statistical significance for any trait with a highly dimensional dataset.
- dooglius 7y agoRather than making armchair dismissals, consider looking at the paper and its citations which discuss the statistical methods used. From a cursory glance, it looks like they use a standard model of how genes affect traits, which uses O(N) parameters for N genes, so the "curse of dimensionality" would not apply.
- superpermutat0r 7y agoWhen there's thousands of genes then it applies.
- vixen99 7y agoMaybe akin to the IQ story. Polygenic scores have been shown in at least 20 studies to predict IQ & educational attainment. "Childhood intelligence is heritable, highly polygenic and associated with FNBP1L" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3935975/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3935975/
- bayesian_horse 7y agoInheritability of a trait can be inferred through statistic means, though I feel like there is too much confidence around such computations, given that it is virtually impossible to isolate environment from genetics in Humans. But when looking for specific mutations, the sum of all these effects is often just a small fraction of that inheritability, suggesting that the interaction of the genes and the environment is more complex than can be captured with such models.
- DangerousPie 7y agoThat's why it says "no single genetic cause" and not "no genetic cause".
- Vinnl 7y agoTechnically true, and I'm sure the title wasn't intended to have that effect, but judging by the other comments, it appears some people still seem to be led to believe it meant "no genetic cause" - so it's still worth pointing out. But yes, that's not necessarily malice or incompetence on the part of the title's author.
- lone-commenter 7y ago> But yes, that's not necessarily malice or incompetence on the part of the title's author. If it's not malice, then it's linguistic incompetence.
- Vinnl 7y agoWell, incompetence in that they didn't manage to achieve clarity for all readers, but not in the sense that someone else would've been able to think of a better title that would achieve that, I think.
- lone-commenter 7y agoSure they would: "Study Finds No Unique Genetic Cause of Same-Sex Sexual Behavior".
- darkwater 7y agoYet a handful of comments here are already jumping to the "it's environmental, not genetic" conclusion
- CriticalCathed 7y agoIt's also raging across the right wing internet. Has been for 3 days. Facts don't matter, even here.
- roansh 7y agoThis needs to be at top. Lots of commenters seem to have misunderstood the title just as this comment suggests.
- dooglius 7y agoRight, and I don't think anyone would expect any complex behavior to be brought on by changes in only a few proteins.
- scotty79 7y agoYou might be surprised how mane really complex outcomes can come from a single mutation.
- dooglius 7y agoI should clarify what I mean... yes, single mutations can definitely have far-reaching effects, but you would not expect a high-level emergent behavior to be the result of one or a few genes.
- scotty79 7y agoThat single mutation could affect level of some hormone during som3 crucial step of brain development and that might result in some complex behavioral changes.