Are We Programmed For Kindness?

Jan. 12, 2005 — -- Do humans have a "goodness gene?" Is there something inside us that genetically pushes us to reach out to the people who were devastated by the tsunami that struck southern Asia? Or do we do it because we have seen others suffer, and our culture has taught us the meaning of social responsibility?

The old "nature vs. nurture" debate just won't go away, as revealed by a number of studies in recent scientific journals and the sometimes nasty debates that follow.

Over the years the pendulum has swung back and forth between two extreme positions. Either we are what our genes tell us to be. Or we are what our culture has taught us to be.

The truth certainly lies somewhere in between, with opinions ranging all the way from "genetic determinism," in which genes are everything, to "free will," in which we have the freedom to shape our own sense of social responsibility regardless of our genetic composition.

It's a tough nut to crack, because it wouldn't be socially responsible to manipulate some human lives from the moment of birth, controlling everything in their environment, so that we can separate cultural factors from genetics.

Some scientists believe an alternative is right in front of us, and it doesn't require any manipulation of human lives to shed some light on this difficult subject. Identical twins, they say, provide that window.

If genetics plays a significant role in determining whether we are socially responsible, for example, then identical twins should agree with each other more often than the rest of us, even fraternal twins, because the genes they share are encoded with the difference between right and wrong.

Following that line of thought, researchers have found all kinds of evidence of genetic determinism, ranging widely from violence to forgiveness.

Interestingly, nearly all of those studies have focused on negatives, like a propensity to commit acts of violence.

"We take good behavior for granted," says psychologist Philippe Ruston of the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, author of a recent study on the genetic basis for altruism. "We almost think of it as the norm. So we're looking at deviations from our socially responsible norms."