Editing Heritability (section)

== Controversies ==
{{Unbalanced section|date=August 2016}}
Heritability estimates' prominent critics, such as [[Steven Rose]],<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Rose SP | title = Commentary: heritability estimates--long past their sell-by date | journal = International Journal of Epidemiology | volume = 35 | issue = 3 | pages = 525–7 | date = June 2006 | pmid = 16645027 | doi = 10.1093/ije/dyl064 | author-link = Steven Rose | doi-access = free }}</ref> [[Jay Joseph]],<ref>{{cite book | first = Jay | last = Joseph | name-list-style = vanc | title = The Gene Illusion | chapter = Chapter 5 | location = New York | publisher = [[Algora]] | year = 2004 | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=D4S13LYI9egC&pg=PA141 | page = 141 | isbn = 978-1-898059-47-9 | title-link = The Gene Illusion | access-date = 2016-04-02 | archive-date = 2017-07-19 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170719214127/https://books.google.com/books?id=D4S13LYI9egC&pg=PA141 | url-status = live }}</ref> and [[Richard Bentall]], focus largely on heritability estimates in [[behavioral sciences]] and [[social sciences]].  Bentall has claimed that such heritability scores are typically calculated counterintuitively to derive numerically high scores, that heritability is misinterpreted as [[genetic determinism|genetic determination]], and that this alleged bias distracts from other factors that researches have found more causally important, such as childhood abuse causing later psychosis.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bentall |first1=Richard P. |name-list-style=vanc |title=Doctoring the Mind: Is Our Current Treatment of Mental Illness Really Any Good? |date=2009 |publisher=[[New York University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8147-8723-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V2ahyDKjMykC&pg=PA123 |pages=123–127 |location=New York |access-date=2016-04-02 |archive-date=2020-10-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201005031501/https://books.google.com/books?id=V2ahyDKjMykC&pg=PA123 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | first = Melanie | last = McGrath | name-list-style = vanc | url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/5712151/Doctoring-the-Mind-Why-Psychiatric-Treatments-Fail-by-Richard-Bentall-review.html | title = Doctoring the Mind: Review | work = [[The Telegraph (newspaper)|The Telegraph]] | date = 5 July 2009 | access-date = 4 April 2018 | archive-date = 28 September 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110928055412/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/5712151/Doctoring-the-Mind-Why-Psychiatric-Treatments-Fail-by-Richard-Bentall-review.html | url-status = live }}</ref> Heritability estimates are also inherently limited because they do not convey any information regarding whether genes or environment play a larger role in the development of the trait under study. For this reason, [[David S. Moore (psychologist)|David Moore]] and [[David Shenk]] describe the term "heritability" in the context of behavior genetics as "...one of the most misleading in the history of science" and argue that it has no value except in very rare cases.<ref name=moore>{{cite journal | vauthors = Moore DS, Shenk D | title = The heritability fallacy | journal = Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science | volume = 8 | issue = 1–2 | pages = e1400 | date = January 2017 | pmid = 27906501 | doi = 10.1002/wcs.1400 }}</ref> When studying complex human traits, it is impossible to use heritability analysis to determine the relative contributions of genes and environment, as such traits result from multiple causes interacting.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Feldman MW, Ramachandran S | title = Missing compared to what? Revisiting heritability, genes and culture | journal = Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences | volume = 373 | issue = 1743 | pages = 20170064 | date = April 2018 | pmid = 29440529 | pmc = 5812976 | doi = 10.1098/rstb.2017.0064 | quote = ...all complex human traits result from a combination of causes. If these causes interact, it is impossible to assign quantitative values to the fraction of a trait due to each, just as we cannot say how much of the area of a rectangle is due, separately, to each of its two dimensions. Thus, in the analyses of complex human phenotypes...we cannot actually find ‘the relative importance of genes and environment in the determination of phenotype’. }}</ref>  In particular, [[Marcus Feldman|Feldman]] and [[Richard C. Lewontin|Lewontin]] emphasize that heritability is itself a function of environmental variation.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Marcus W. Feldman |author2=Richard C. Lewontin |title=The Heritability Hang–Up |journal=Science |year=1975 |volume=190 |issue=4220 |pages=1163–1168 |doi=10.1126/science.1198102 |pmid=1198102 |bibcode=1975Sci...190.1163F |s2cid=6797128 |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1198102 |access-date=20 May 2021 |archive-date=20 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520091923/https://science.sciencemag.org/content/190/4220/1163 |url-status=live }}</ref>  However, some researchers argue that it is possible to disentangle the two.<ref>Tredoux, Gavan. "The Nature and Nurture of Rectangles." (2019).</ref>

The controversy over heritability estimates is largely via their basis in [[twin studies]].  The scarce success of [[Genome-wide complex trait analysis|molecular-genetic]] studies to corroborate such [[quantitative genetics|population-genetic]] studies' conclusions is the [[missing heritability problem|''missing heritability'' problem]].<ref name=Turkheimer2011/> Eric Turkheimer has argued that newer molecular methods have vindicated the conventional interpretation of twin studies,<ref name=Turkheimer2011>{{Cite journal | last1 = Turkheimer | first1 = Eric | name-list-style = vanc | title = Still missing | doi = 10.1080/15427609.2011.625321 | journal = Research in Human Development | volume = 8 | issue = 3–4 | pages = 227–241 | year = 2011 | s2cid = 14737438 }}</ref> although it remains mostly unclear how to explain the relations between genes and behaviors.<ref name="pmid26413946">{{cite journal | vauthors = Turkheimer E | title = Genetic Prediction | journal = The Hastings Center Report | volume = 45 | issue = 5 Suppl | pages = S32–8 | date = 2015 | pmid = 26413946 | doi = 10.1002/hast.496 }}</ref> According to Turkheimer, both genes and environment are heritable, genetic contribution varies by environment, and a focus on heritability distracts from other important factors.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Joseph |first1=Jay |name-list-style=vanc |title=The Trouble with Twin Studies: A Reassessment of Twin Research in the Social and Behavioral Sciences |date=2014 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=978-1-317-60590-4 |url=http://jayjoseph.net/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/The_Trouble_with_Twin_Studies_Chapter_Summaries.329211842.pdf |page=81 |access-date=2016-04-02 |archive-date=2016-04-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160404081310/http://jayjoseph.net/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/The_Trouble_with_Twin_Studies_Chapter_Summaries.329211842.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>  Overall, however, ''heritability'' is a concept widely applicable.<ref name=VisscherHillWray/>