Edit - Addendum: The video title is quite clickbait-y. The video doesn’t want to debunk any “serious” science, but rather investigates how badly done research with no reproducability or horrible statistical significance is used to influence the discourse in favour of regressive politics.

  • Prunebutt@slrpnk.netOP
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    6 months ago

    Repeating your point dosn’t make it less wrong. You didn’t watch the video. You don’t get to judge it.

    Please show the scientific process went in establishing that mistrust of strangers is a genetically evolved trait. That’s one of the biggest problems of evopsych: basically all theories are post-hoc. That’s not science, it’s wild speculation with a bunch of unfalsifiable claims.

    Are you seriously comparing the breeding of crops with the human genome? Analysing the human genome is not the same as eugenics with a less burned name. The whole idea of eugenics is to make the human gene pool more shallow in favour of more “advantageous” traits/genes.and that doesn’t work, no matter how well the human genome is understood.

    Also: nobody mentioned game theory or behavioral ecology, but you. Adting as if they were ever under attack by this video is mansplaining an best and strawmanning at worst.

    • perestroika@slrpnk.net
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      5 months ago

      Acting as if they were ever under attack by this video is mansplaining an best and strawmanning at worst.

      Those are quite closely related branches of research. If you deal with one, you’re almost certainly also involved with another, so much that teaching them on the same course makes sense. Human psychology is considerably more complex than animal psychology, but built of the same blocks - and both humans and animals can, to different degrees, be rational agents in natural or artificial games, where their choice of strategy depends on their psychological profile.

      Please show the scientific process went in establishing that mistrust of strangers is a genetically evolved trait.

      Here are some articles on the subject. The deepest-drilling article is not about humans, but dogs.

      “Genetic mapping of canine fear and aggression”

      We conducted genomewide association (GWA) mapping of breed stereotypes for many fear and aggression traits across several hundred dogs from diverse breeds. We confirmed those findings using GWA in a second cohort of partially overlapping breeds. Lastly, we used the validated loci to create a model that effectively predicted fear and aggression stereotypes in a third group of dog breeds that were not involved in the mapping studies. We found that i) known IGF1 and HMGA2 loci variants for small body size are associated with separation anxiety, touch-sensitivity, owner directed aggression and dog rivalry; and ii) two loci, between GNAT3 and CD36 on chr18, and near IGSF1 on chrX, are associated with several traits, including touch-sensitivity, non-social fear, and fear and aggression that are directed toward unfamiliar dogs and humans

      So it seems that in dogs, there likely is a genetic factor involved in fear of unfamiliar individuals and agression towards them. It is no wonder, as countless generations of wolves have likely needed to decide how to relate to an individual from another pack, and this has sometimes conveyed them advantages or disadvantages.

      Large Study Identifies Genetic Variants Linked to Risk Tolerance and Risky Behaviors

      An international group that includes researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine has identified 124 genetic variants associated with a person’s willingness to take risks, as reported in a study published January 14 in Nature Genetics. /…/ The researchers emphasize that no variant on its own meaningfully affects a particular person’s risk tolerance or penchant for making risky decisions — such as drinking, smoking, speeding — and non-genetic factors matter more for risk tolerance than genetic factors. The study shows evidence of shared genetic influences across both an overall measure of risk tolerance and many specific risky behaviors.

      So it seems that in humans, there are hundreds (or thousands) of genes subtly influencing different types of risk-and-reward calculations. Trust (or distrust) in strangers is a narrower part of a wider array of attributes which can be summarized as “risk tolerance”. It has been noticed recently that genetic factors contribute, along with environmental factors, of course. It is worth noting that genetic factors aren’t considered to be the biggest source of influence.

      …and in practise, a person knowing about their genetic predisposition might apply this knowledge in related fields - e.g. when negotiating a risky deal, deciding whether to litigate or take retribution after being wronged, deciding whether to wear a life vest or attach a seatbelt.

      Some person might know of their predisposition to seeking higher reward at high risk, and refrain from gambling. Another might know that their reward-seeking mechanisms are more susceptible than usual to chemical addiction, and avoid consuming certain substances. Another might know of their predisposition to averting loss, even if it also averts gain, and deliberately increase their willingness to take business risk. Another might want to compensate against their higher tendency to distrust strangers, or against a tendency to trust too easily.

      Are you seriously comparing the breeding of crops with the human genome?

      Yes. All life on Earth is related. Even plants and bacteria use the same sort of ribosomes to make their protein, and most air-breathers use the same sort of mitochondria to process oxygen. Altering plants so they would resist drought or flooding better is only some degree of knowledge away from giving oneself or others night vision, ability to heal bigger wounds, greater resistance to cancer or inability to get thrombosis.

      Not hastily, though, as genomes don’t have their goods in clearly labeled boxes.