Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T18:49:53.841Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Genes, cognition, and social behavior: Next steps for foundations and researchers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 January 2016

Arthur Lupia
Arthur Lupia*
Affiliation:
Hal R. Varian Collegiate Professor of Political Science, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48104. lupia@umich.edu
Get access

Extract

Editor's note This well circulated but heretofore unpublished report is the summary statement of an interdisciplinary meeting of scholars convened by the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Virginia on June 28, 2010. The workshop, which was funded by the NSF's Political Science Program (Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences Grant #1037831), was convened to answer two compelling questions: Are studies of social behavior that build from discoveries about genes and/or cognition of greater social and scientific value than studies of the same topics that ignore such factors? And, how can fundable research on genes, cognition, and politics generate transformative scientific practices, infrastructure, and findings of high social value? Assembled for the workshop were a group of scholars representing diverse yet increasingly connected research areas, including genetics, cognitive science and neuroscience, decision making and risk analysis, economics, political science, and sociology. The resulting report outlines the substantial challenges facing interdisciplinary research but also describes the considerable contributions to knowledge that could result from sustained collaborations between biologists, geneticists, and brain scientists on the one hand and social scientists on the other. Following this main report are three white papers by Jeremy Freese. Elizabeth Hammock, and Rose McDermott, which address importmant considerations related to the discussion. For a download of the full report, see http://www.isr.umich.edu.cps/workshop.Welcome.html.

Type
NSF Workshop Report
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , Fall 2011 , pp. 65 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Gillispie, Charles C., “E.O. Wilson's Consilience: A noble, unifying vision, grandly expressed,” American Scientist 1998, 86: 280–283.Google Scholar
2. Carr, Geoffrey, “Biology 2.0: A special report on the human genome,” The Economist June 19, 2010.Google Scholar
3. Weaver, Ian C. G., Cervoni, Nadia, Champagne, Frances A., D'Alessio, Ana C., Sharma, Shakti, Seckl, Jonathan R., Dymov, Sergiy, Szyf, Moshe, and Meane, Michael J., “Epigenetic programming by maternal behavior,” Nature Neuroscience 2004, 7(8): 847–854.Google Scholar
4. Suomi, Stephen J., “Gene-environment interactions and the neurobiology of social conflict,” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 2003, 1008(1): 132–139.Google Scholar
5. Abbott, Allison, “Brain imaging studies under fire: Social neuroscientists criticized for exaggerating links between brain activity and emotions,” Nature 2009, 457(7227): 245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6. Abbasi, Daniel, Americans and Climate Change: Closing the Gap between Science and Action (New Haven: Yale School of Forestry, 2006).Google Scholar
7. Phelps, Elizabeth A. and LeDoux, Joseph E., “Contributions of the amygdala to emotion processing: From animal models to human behavior,” Neuron 2005, 48: 175–187.Google Scholar
8. Champoux, Maribeth, Bennett, Allyson, Shannon, Courtney, Dee Higley, J., Lesch, Klaus Peter, and Suomi, Stephen J., “Serotonin transporter gene polymorphism, differential early rearing, and behavior in rhesus monkey neonates,” 2002, Molecular Psychiatry, 7(10): 1058–1063.Google Scholar
9. Conley, Dalton, “The promise and challenges of incorporating genetic data into longitudinal social science surveys and research,” Biodemography and Social Biology 2009, 55: 238–251 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10. McClure, Samuel M., Laibson, David I., Loewenstein, George, and Cohen, Jonathan D., “Separate neural systems value immediate and delayed monetary rewards,” Science 2004, 306(5695): 503–507.Google Scholar
11. Sanfey, Alan G., Rilling, James K., Aronson, Jessica A., Nystrom, Leigh E., and Cohen, Jonathan D., “The neural basis of economic decision making in the ultimatum game,” Science 2003, 300(5626): 1755–1758.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12. The Minerva Initiative, Department of Defense, Washington, DC, mineva.dtic.mil, accessed August 2, 2010.Google Scholar