Genes, Behavior, and the Social Environment: Moving Beyond the Nature/Nurture Debate

Over the past century, we have made great strides in reducing rates of disease and enhancing people's general health. Public health measures such as sanitation, improved hygiene, and vaccines; reduced hazards in the workplace; new drugs and clinical procedures; and, more recently, a growing understanding of the human genome have each played a role in extending the duration and raising the quality of human life. But research conducted over the past few decades shows us that this progress, much of which was based on investigating one causative factor at a time―often, through a single discipline or by a narrow range of practitioners―can only go so far. Genes, Behavior, and the Social Environment examines a number of well-described gene-environment interactions, reviews the state of the science in researching such interactions, and recommends priorities not only for research itself but also for its workforce, resource, and infrastructural needs.

Committee on Assessing Interactions Among Social, Behavioral, and Genetic Factors in Health, Lyla M. Hernandez and Dan G. Blazer, Editors