Genetic Predispositions, Risk-Taking, and the Nuance of Free Will with Dr. Kathryn Paige Harden

Dr. Kathryn Paige Harden discusses the controversial reception of her previous book and her ongoing research into the genetic underpinnings of human behavior. She highlights how genetics can explain individual differences in personality, such as why people differ from their family members. Her recent large-scale study, involving 4 million individuals, investigated genetic predispositions towards a "risk-taking" or "disinhibition" phenotype, encompassing behaviors like ADHD symptoms, early sexual activity, multiple sexual partners, cannabis use, problematic alcohol use, smoking, and general risk-seeking. The study aimed to identify genes common across these diverse behaviors, suggesting a general genetic liability for disinhibition.

Harden emphasizes that these behaviors, while often moralized or seen as "wrongdoing," can also have adaptive aspects. She introduces the concept of human self-domestication, where humans have evolved towards greater cooperation and self-control compared to primate relatives. However, she also points out the countervailing force: some level of risk-taking and deviance is necessary for societal progress, citing entrepreneurship as an example where teenage delinquency can be a predictor of success. She draws a parallel with schizophrenia genes, noting that while extreme expressions are maladaptive, a higher number of these variants in non-schizophrenic individuals correlates with creativity and artistic professions, suggesting a "sweet spot" in the distribution of genetic traits.

The discussion touches on the practical implications of genetic predispositions, particularly regarding drug use and brain development. Harden advises waiting until after age 30 to experiment with psychedelic drugs, especially for individuals with a family history of bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, due to the heightened risk of psychotic breaks during the brain's rapid development phase (ages 15-30). She suggests that psychedelics might be more beneficial in middle age to disrupt neurobiological ruts, rather than during the already chaotic and neuroplastic 20s. This highlights the importance of understanding genetic and developmental vulnerabilities in making personal health choices.

Harden delves into the free will debate, expressing less interest in the philosophical "do we have free will" question and more in its practical implications for societal judgments, punishment, and interpersonal relationships. She argues that while individuals experience themselves as freely choosing, their choices are profoundly shaped by factors outside their control, including genes and environment. She uses scenarios of culpability (e.g., a driver causing an accident due to epilepsy, medication choices, panic attacks linked to trauma, or inherited predispositions) to illustrate how people intuitively differentiate culpability based on underlying causes, even if a strict determinist view might see them all as equally determined. This underscores the need for a nuanced understanding of human behavior beyond simplistic moral judgments.

"I've always wondered why I'm so different from my parents or why I'm so different from my siblings and your work has given me a new way of understanding that."

"There's something very alienating and disorienting about feeling like you are talking but people are deliberately not hearing you."

"My dad was a fighter pilot for the US Navy when he was a young man and he just kept saying you always get, you know, the the most uh fire when you're directly over the target."

"These are all of these things are behaviors that violate some rule, right? So someone says it's not healthy to smoke, you shouldn't drink if you have problems."

"I was raised to think of drug use entirely in moral terms, like this is about willpower. This is about um your relationship with Jesus. And now we're modeling it in mice and now we're going to manipulate something in mice brains in order to see if we can change that behavior. it has something to do with their genes. I just thought that was an incredible paradigm shift."

"If you look at people who have a high number of those genetic variants but aren't schizophrenic, you see that they're more likely to be artists. They're more likely to be engineers. They're more likely to be musicians. They're more likely to be in creative professions."

"I told my kids if you ever want to try psychedelic drugs you should wait until after 30."

"The person who is doing the choosing, the person that is deciding between the options, that person is so profoundly shaped by factors outside of their control."

"I think the free will question is intellectually interesting but of limited practical utility for a lot of the questions that we have."

"Antisocial behavior are doing things persistently that violate social norms, moral norms, the rights of others."