The Genome Factor ― What the Social Genomics Revolution Reveals About Ourselves, Our History, and the Future

For a century, social scientists have avoided genetics like the plague. But the nature-nurture wars are over. In the past decade, a small but intrepid group of economists, political scientists, and sociologists have harnessed the genomics revolution to paint a more complete picture of human social life than ever before. The Genome Factor describes the astonishing discoveries being made at the scientific frontier where genomics and the social sciences intersect. Dalton Conley and Jason Fletcher reveal that there are real genetic differences by racial ancestry—but ones that don’t conform to what we call black, white, or Latino. Genes explain a significant share of who gets ahead in society and who does not, but can also act as engines of mobility that counter social disadvantage. The Genome Factor shows how genomics is transforming the social sciences—and how social scientists are integrating both nature and nurture into a unified, comprehensive understanding of human behavior at both the individual and society-wide levels.

Dalton Conley is the Henry Putnam University Professor of Sociology at Princeton University. Jason Fletcher is Professor of Public Affairs, Sociology, Agricultural and Applied Economics, and Population Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.