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Recommended for: Grades 9-12

Resource: Is Love in Our DNA?

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Despite the link science has made between genes and physical traits, many of us still attribute aspects of human behavior, like mate choice, to the type of social system we belong to rather than the genes we inherited. This interactive poll from Evolution: asks users, Did evolution shape your taste in a mate? Each response is met with counterarguments, in the form of quotes, images, and videos, after which users have the opportunity to vote again. After a final vote, a tally of all votes reveals how many users changed their minds along the way.

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Teachers' Domain, Is Love in Our DNA?, published September 26, 2003, retrieved on ,
http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/tdc02.sci.life.evo.islovedna/

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Our genes control the color of our hair, our height, the size of our feet. And genes probably influence other, far more complex traits like our immunity to certain diseases, our level of agility, and probably even our predisposition to addiction.

The importance of our genetic make-up to the person we ultimately become has been debated since long before scientists discovered DNA. The nature vs. nurture debate raises the question, Is who we are the result of the genetic material we received from our parents, or do we all begin life as relatively similar blank slates, becoming unique only in response to the particular environmental conditions we encounter as we develop? Most experts believe the answer lies somewhere in between.

While many physical traits have been clearly linked to particular sections of DNA code, human behaviors have been far more difficult to pin down. For example, explaining criminal behavior in terms of personal psychology and history is much easier than finding a gene or genes responsible for such conduct. However, a growing number of evolutionary psychologists argue that many behavioral traits, including mate preference, must surely be influenced by the genes we inherited from our ancestors -- the result of millions of years of natural selection.