Abstract
Multiple genes and multiple environmental factors influence the development of most human traits and behaviors. Understanding this core idea of genetics is central to genetic literacy. We summarize research findings on individuals’ causal attributions and report on three primary causal categories: genes, environment and personal decision. For understanding the causes of human traits and behaviors, attributing them exclusively to genes is as problematic as attributing them exclusively to the environment or to personal decision. Motivated by the intention to prevent genetic determinism, considerable genetics education research has focused on genetic attributions, and rather less attention has been paid to other monocausal attributions. Individuals’ limited view of the environment as external (physical, social, cultural) and their lacking knowledge of gene–environment interactions are restrictive for understanding multiple and interactive causation of human traits and behaviors. To reconstruct the intuitive view that single factors (genes, environment, personal decision) alone determine traits, two aspects are important: understanding how environmental factors “get under the skin” and understanding the complex interplay between genes and the environment at the different levels of biological organization. Educators are recommended to reorganize the curriculum and emphasize gene–environment interplay to counteract the misconceptions that single factors alone determine traits.
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Hammann, M., Heemann, T., Zang, J.C.S. (2021). Why Does Multiple and Interactive Causation Render Comprehension of Genetics Phenomena Difficult and What Could Genetics Educators Do About It?. In: Haskel-Ittah, M., Yarden, A. (eds) Genetics Education. Contributions from Biology Education Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86051-6_8
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