Metaphors in behavioral genetics.

Abstract

Behavioral geneticists sometimes use metaphors to describe the role of genes in human behavior. In this paper, five sample texts are analyzed: a popular book, a textbook, a scientific review article, and two original scientific articles representing different approaches in behavioral genetics. Metaphors are found in all the different kinds of sample texts, not only in the popular book and the textbook. This suggests that metaphors are used not only for rhetorical or pedagogical purposes but play a more fundamental role in scientific understanding. In the sample texts, the metaphors tend to be antideterministic, i.e., they do not imply genetic determinism but stress the interaction of multiple genes and multiple environmental factors. No conclusion can be drawn, however, as to whether antideterminism is representative of present-day behavioral geneticists in general. Certain historically important metaphors that may imply genetic determinism are qualified, avoided, or explicitly rejected. There are tensions between some of the metaphors, making them difficult to combine. All the metaphors that are used appear empirically apt, however sometimes only with certain qualifications.