Do genes CAUSE human behavior?

Question

It is very commonly said by many people that genes are responsible for a person's BEHAVIOR (not talking physical characteristics here). Do genes CAUSE human behavior?

If you insist genes cause HUMAN behavior (not talking about comparisons with animals whether you think humans are animals or not), how do you know this information?

If you think you're able to answer this question, and you use any of the following terms make sure you define the term: trait, gene, psychology, science.

Good luck.

Please. This is a serious issue. If you're going to leave an answer that's only a joke (like the first one below), go on to disrespect another question.

If you're going to say "children of alcoholics are 4 times more likely to become alcoholics themselves" as evidence that genes cause behavior without saying how such research isolates genes, don't expect your answer to be the best!

When you want to attract the "opposite" sex your body releases HUMAN pheromones????

Look, if you're going to make such smart scientific claims you'd better CITE WHERE YOUR CLAIM CAME FROM!

AGGGG! I asked do genes cause HUMAN BEHAVIOR! Facial gestures are physical characteristics!!!

Quote from below: "...psychologists with the aid of leading Sociologists have come to the realization that nurture is what has the most influence on a persons development."

AGGGGGH! what "leading sociologists" and psychologists say "nurture" is "more important" ?????

NOBODY IS CITING ANY SOURCES! HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE SAYING? WHERE DID YOU LEARN IT???

(!) LOOK AT THIS CONTRADICTION: "Of course genes and traits play a big role in who you are but it is your upbringing that influences how you will develop each one of your traits."

???Genes play a "big role" but "upbringing" influences your development???

Shredstrat thinks the size of the component of one's brain is directly related to it's function! That's like saying a person with a brain that is bigger and contains more mass is "smarter."

I'm talking about GENES! Do genes CAUSE human behavior?? If you can't answer this without talking about GENES CAUSING BEHAVIOR OR NOT don't answer this question!

UNBELIEVABLE! Look at this answer and recall I'm asking if genes cause BEHAVIOR:

yes, genes cause behavior, but mediated by the environment (and viceversa).
Imagine this: your genes specify how tall you will be as an adult; but this depends on the environment (e.g. food available).

HOW TALL YOU ARE IS NOT BEHAVIOR!

Look at this and tell me am I going mad or what? I'm asking a question about GENES and this person is talking about NEURONS CAUSING BEHAVIOR:

"Now over thousands of years, evolution played a great role in separating those with faster reaction times from those who weren't quick enough. This was particularly important in the days when we had to hunt wild animals. If our neuronal responses were not quick enough, we would not survive and our genes would not be passed on."

Do GENES THEMSELVES cause behavior. If I wanted to ask do NEURONS cause behavior I would have asked a different question!

"We have certain predispositions because are ancestors carried these surviving genes on, but the way in which we ultimately act on our genes is what ultimately defines our behavior."

I have never seen such a run-around answer in my life. You can say all this but you can't simply say: No, genes do not CAUSE behavior?

You don't "act on your genes." Your genes are either expressed or not. You don't "act on your genes." I asked do your genes act on you to control your behavior. I asked do your genes CAUSE your behavior.

Big Gee: A "meme" has been proposed as a type of gene that passes on culture?--that predisposes someone to something like the ability to drive a car? Now your're saying genes DO ultimately cause behavior. MAKE UP YOUR MIND! To say one is "predisposed" is a run-around answer. I'm asking DO GENES CAUSE BEHAVIOR?

BEST ANSWER SO FAR: Read Prince47 below.

Answer 1

genes causes physical features.

Answer 2

Yes, if there is no such thing as free will. We are either responsible for our own behavior or we're not.

In the broadest possible sense, everything from our genes to our environment influence our behavior. If I put on a coat, it's because the temperature is low, if I turn on the air conditioning, that's because it's hot, but influence is very different from cause. Unless we all lack free will, it is not possible to say that my turning on the a/c was caused by the high temperature, it was only influenced by the heat.

If we have free will, then even the combination of genes and environment cannot be said to cause behavior. If we don't have free will, none of this matters.

Answer 3

Your question is the oldest question/argument in psychology. Originally most psychologists were of the opinion that we are most influenced by nature. However recently psychologists with the aid of leading Sociologists have come to the realization that nurture is what has the most influence on a persons development. Of course genes and traits play a big role in who you are but it is your upbringing that influences how you will develop each one of your traits. Your genes decide which traits you have and carries their potential.

Answer 4

Im no psychologist but genes do not dictate behaviour but it does influence instinct. Having the gene might give you the propensity to behave a certain way like mannerisms similar to parents or other blood relatives. Has it been proven that genes make you behave a certain way? Because I think behaviour is a person's response to certain triggers or circumstances. And character dictates the level of that response. Ex. Just because one parent is an ex-con does not automatically mean the child will become or behave like one in the future. Behaviour is formed by proper or improper guidance while growing up. But as I said - genes can influence mannerisms.

Answer 5

Genes are one of several factors that lead to human behavior. For example,scientific research has shown children of alcoholics are 4 times more likely to drink than children of non-alcoholics. However, it does not mean that a child of an alcoholic will automatically drink. In psychology it goes back to the nature vs. nurture question and which determines human behavior. The best way to explain it is that genes create a predisposition to certain behavior, that when coupled with several environmental factors lead to a specific behavior.

Answer 6

That which is physical is only tangentially associated with human behavior. Such as, ones facial features, if unattractive would naturally cause one to shy away from public display of ones features. But this is not the question.

The causal factors that "create" ones personality are the following:

1. Ones Fate Karma that represents a number of Karmic due bills that need to be worked on in ones present life. These and the programming that administers Fate Karma are all in ones MIND realm.

2. A grouping of DbAasMT [Dissociated bits of Apapsyche as Misperceived Traumata] each serving as some misperception taken-on from ones parents at or near ones birth.

3. Certain MINDLines one is working on which means certain virtues one is developing.

4. Various environmental factors ones MIND uses to reinforce the negative misperceptions held within itself as ones Negative Self-Image. And finally, ones learned behavioral patterns that have been successful for ones survival [either real or imagined].

These then constitute the personality of each individual and each indiviudual behaves according to the dictates of his/her personality. Looking at behavior, or anything of a physical nature to determine the cause of behavior is to imagine that one can determine the height of a person by looking at the candy bar wrapper he left in the trash two days ago.

Answer 7

How about this?If genes are capeable of causing the same brain physiology IE: the same size hypothalamus as ones father.Then are they capeable of the same release and combination of neurotransmitters in ones brain that can cause and affect behavior?Genes probably could increase the likelyhood for a certain behavior to develop,depending on a specific or maybe even non specific enviornmental factor or factors.

Answer 8

yes, genes cause behavior, but mediated by the environment (and viceversa).
Imagine this: your genes specify how tall you will be as an adult; but this depends on the environment (e.g. food available). It is the same with behavior, your genes, together with the environment are responsible.

Answer 9

IMHO human behaviour is caused by chemicals in our body. Consider this:
- when you need an extra burst of energy, your body releases endorphines
- when you want to attract the opposit sex, your body releases pheromonoes
- your body produces electrodes that get sent to the brain (via the nervous system) when you feel pain. this is the same reason why when someone is paralyzed (Christioper Reeve, Stephen Hawkins, etc) they feel no pain. the path the electroed uses to send signals to the brain is destroyed.

All human activity can be linked to some form of chemicals being relased. A malfuction of this trait can cause erratic behaviour to occur.

Answer 10

Ok let's give it a shot:

To start with, i will define genes as Richard Dawkins does in his book, "The Selfish Gene". "...we can define a single gene as a sequence of nucleotide letters lying between a START and an END symbol, and coding for one protein chain" (28). Generally what Dawkins says in this quote is that each gene is the smallest unit of the amino letters that is capable of making some kind of change in the human body. That having been said, genes do not necessarily control our behavior, but may - depending on the situation - predispose or contribute to our behavior. I think the best way of explaining this is to use an example. Say your fingers touch something really hot by accident, you automatically jump back. This is what we all know as a reflex. But is it a reflex because our body has genes that tell it to pull back? No, we have genes that coded for neurons, the basic building blocks of the nervous system, which, when formed, began sending signals to your brain when this event occurred and told your brain to release your hand from the hot object as fast as possible. Now over thousands of years, evolution played a great role in separating those with faster reaction times from those who weren't quick enough. This was particularly important in the days when we had to hunt wild animals. If our neuronal responses were not quick enough, we would not survive and our genes would not be passed on. On the other hand, those whose genes were fit for the environment survived, passed their genes on, and today account for the predispositions that we see.

I know, I know. I have still not answered your question. Where am I going with this? Well...let's say that you have two human beings, one born in India and one in the United States. The guy in the United States grows up and one day touches a hot coal when he's camping with his friends. His reflexes kick in and he jumps back. Now over in India, this other guy has been training his whole life to be one of those guys who walks on coals. He walks on not just one, but a whole bunch of coals, and overcomes his reflexes, programmed into his body, to do this. Why does one jump and the other doesn't? The environment is your answer. We have certain predispositions because are ancestors carried these surviving genes on, but the way in which we ultimately act on our genes is what ultimately defines our behavior

We as humans are born with something that no other animal in the animal kingdom has (i know you told us to stay away from the comparison to animals, but bear with me) - a brain capable of intellectual thought. Our brains have evolved in such a manner that they give us the capability to think outside of the realm of what our genes predispose us to do. Dawkins mentions in his book a new type of gene that can on some levels be equated with culture. He calls them memes. As he says, "The new soup is the soup of human culture. We need a name for the new replicator, a noun that conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation...examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches. Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperms or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation" (192). Memes, as Dawkins points out, will be the new way that we pass on to our children the predispositions. We may teach them Christianity or Judaism or any other religion, for example, but what they make their faith is their own choosing.

I hope I have answered your question as thoroughly as possible but if not, please let me know so that i may elaborate on it.