Intelligence 32 (2004) 425 427

Book review
The Gene Illusion: Genetic research in psychiatry and psychology under the microscope Jay Joseph; PCCS Books, Ross-on-Wye, UK, 2003, 342 pages, ISBN 1-898059-47-0

The Gene Illusion is a methodological critique of quantitative behavior genetics and its core methods, twin, and adoption studies. It includes a historical review of twin research from 1870 to the present (Chapter 2), followed by a critical discussion of environmental confounds in studies of twins reared together (Chapter 3), twins reared apart (Chapter 4), and the heritability concept (Chapter 5). About a third of the book is devoted to the genetics of schizophrenia (Chapters 6 and 7). The remaining 60 pages address genetic studies of criminal behavior (Chapter 8), IQ (Chapter 9), and molecular genetics (Chapter 10), before Joseph sums up his position in Chapter 11. The books major claims can be summarized as follows: (a) The classical twin method was the creation of racial hygienists and eugenicists; (b) studies of twins reared together are invalid because the equal environments assumption (EEA) is not met; (c) studies of twins reared-apart are invalid because the unequal environments assumption is not met; (d) heritability as a concept is inherently misleading, has no practical purpose, and is nearly equivalent to no information at all; (e) adoption studies (of schizophrenia and, arguably, such studies in general) are flawed by selective placement, unsound methodology, and bias; in the case of schizophrenia, Joseph concludes that the results from family, twin and adoption studies do not support the position that genes influence the appearance of a set of behaviors given the name schizophrenia (p. 230); and (f) molecular genetic research in psychiatry will prove to be a gigantic waste of time, energy, and money. The same can be said for the search for behavioral and IQ genes (p. 302). These venturesome statements are provocative, yet should not make readers want to dismiss the author and book too easily. Over large parts of the book, Josepha practicing clinical psychologist presents a well-written and forceful critique of methodological difficulties and challenges in twin and adoption research. Some of these issues have been voiced before (e.g., Pam, Kemker, Ross, & Golden, 1996) and need to be taken seriously in contemporary genetic research. The historical account of twin research in the first half of the last century and its disreputable association with eugenics is well documented and valuable. The discussion of selected shortcomings in particular twin and adoption studies is informative, even for experts in the field. The main problem with The Gene Illusion is a predominantly black-and-white portrayal, its reliance on the adversary principle in contrast to the truth-finding principle (Eysenck & Kamin, 1981), and the unwarranted (and unquantified) conclusion that the methodological difficulties and challenges in behavior genetic research render the approach meaningless and invalid. More than 20 years ago, Eysenck wrote that, in scientific arguments (. . .) there are no sides in the adversary sense; all those who take part in the argument want to discover truth (as far as that is humanly possible) rather than win
doi:10.1016/j.intell.2004.04.001

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the argument. Hence, a good critic is the best friend of the scientist who puts forward hypotheses or reports experiments (p. 157). Unfortunately, The Gene Illusion is full of examples of what Eysenck would have called the adversary principle. Joseph likes to polarize, most obviously in his final chapter when he writes: We are being sold an old product in a new packaging. Genetic researchers often call attention to human differences at the expense of emphasizing how much people have in common. They also tend to be interested in peoples limits as opposed to their potential for achievement and growth (p. 302; emphasis added). Discussing the necessity of demonstrating the tenability of the EEA, Joseph puts twin researchers in a Catch-22 situation, claiming that they bear the burden of proof (p. 68), only to add that twin researchers are hardly impartial testers of a method that is, in many cases, their lifes work. The methods they use for evaluating data, the data they choose to collect, and the conclusions they reach, are influenced by their preexisting belief in the twin methods validity (p. 73). Research carried out by critics of the genetic approach is typically described as careful, considerate, and thorough, whereas the empirical work of behavior geneticists is termed seriously flawed, biased, and plagued with glaring weaknesses (p. 46). The chapter on IQ is short and does not do justice to the plethora of relevant studies that have been carried out, both within and outside the field of behavior genetics. Instead of discussing the empirical evidence in adequate detail, Joseph chooses mainly to criticize the Bouchard and McGue (1981) review in passing and denounce IQ testing in general as a tool of oppression (p. 268). Interestingly, studies employing IQ tests are fine when it comes to making the point that genetic researchers selectively neglect results that do not fit their agenda. In Chapter 4, Joseph refers to Sims (1931), who obtained scores for the Otis Self-Administering Test of Mental Ability in a sample 203 unrelated pairs of children matched on the basis of age, school attended, and home background, resulting in a correlation of .29. The presentation of this study is followed by a quote from Kamin (1974, p. 81): This sophisticated and elegant study has simply disappeared from contemporary reference lists, suggesting that genetic researchers do not acknowledge the importance of shared environmental influences on intelligence in childhood. Just the opposite is true: A moderate shared environmental component of about .30 for children aged 1216 years (as in the Sims study) is exactly what is reported in summaries of IQ twin data in childhood (McGue, Bouchard, Iacono, & Lykken, 1993). Little is said about the fields advances, some of which are mentioned below, and none of which are referred to by Joseph. Among recent efforts to refine genetic and environmental research are studies of Gene Environment interaction (e.g., Caspi et al., 2002), attempts to create and use registers to minimize ascertainment bias (Twin Researchs special issue in 2002, Issue 5), the use of extended twin designs (Boomsma, Busjahn, & Peltonen, 2002), the joint analysis of twin, family, and adoption data (e.g., Loehlin, 1992), observational approaches (Borkenau, Riemann, Angleitner, & Spinath, 2001), large population twin samples studied longitudinally from early childhood (Trouton, Spinath, & Plomin, 2002), attempts to study family environment and individual specific environmental influences (Reiss, Neiderhiser, Hetherington, & Plomin, 2000), and environmental risk (E-Risk; e.g., Caspi, Taylor, Moffitt, & Plomin, 2000) using genetically informative designs. Modern behavior genetics has become an interdisciplinary field, in which researchers interested in genetic and environmental influences work together towards a better understanding of individual differences in human behavior. Exchange between researchers and critics and the consideration of justified criticism will further advance the field. Adherence to the adversary principle, denunciation, or a priori dismissiveness will not.

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References
Boomsma, D., Busjahn, A., & Peltonen, L. (2002). Classical twin studies and beyond. Nature Reviews. Genetics, 3, 872 882. Borkenau, P., Riemann, R., Angleitner, A., & Spinath, F. M. (2001). Genetic and environmental influences on observed personality: Evidence from the German observational study of adult twins. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 655 668. Bouchard, T. J. Jr., & McGue, M. (1981). Familial studies of intelligence: A review. Science, 212, 1055 1059. Caspi, A., McClay, J., Moffitt, T. E., Mill, J., Martin, J., Craig, I., Taylor, A., & Poulton, R. (2002). Evidence that the cycle of violence in maltreated children depends on genotype. Science, 297, 851 854. Caspi, A., Taylor, A., Moffitt, T. E., & Plomin, R. (2000). Neighborhood deprivation affects childrens mental health: Environmental risks identified using a genetic design. Psychological Science, 11, 338 342. Eysenck, H. J., & Kamin, L. (1981). Intelligence: The battle for the mind. London, UK: Macmillan Press. Kamin, L. J. (1974). The science and politics of I.Q. Potomac, MD: Lawrence Erlbaum Press. Loehlin, J. C. (1992). Genes and environment in personality development. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. McGue, M., Bouchard, T. J. Jr., Iacono, W. G., & Lykken, D. T. (1993). Behavioral genetics of cognitive ability: A life-span perspective. In R. Plomin, & G. E. McClearn (Eds.), Nature, nurture, and psychology (pp. 59 76). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Pam, A., Kemker, S. S., Ross, C. A., & Golden, R. (1996). The equal environments assumpion in MZ-DZ comparisons: An untenable premise of psychiatric genetics? Acta Geneticae et Gemellologiae, 45, 349 360. Reiss, D., Neiderhiser, J. M., Hetherington, E. M., & Plomin, R. (2000). The relationship code: Deciphering genetic and social patterns in adolescent development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Sims, V. M. (1931). The influence of blood relationship and common environment on measured intelligence. Journal of Educational Psychology, 22, 56 65. Trouton, A., Spinath, F. M., & Plomin, R. (2002). Twins Early Development Study (TEDS): A multivariate, longitudinal genetic investigation of language, cognition and behavior problems in childhood. Twin Research, 5, 444 448.

F.M. Spinath Department of Psychology, University of Bielefeld, PO Box 10 01 03, 33501, Bielefeld, Germany E-mail adress: fspin@uni-bielefeld.de 22 April 2004