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Thursday, June 17, 2004

The Cheating Gene

Probably everybody has heard of this by now, but here's the link on nature.

Enhanced partner preference in a promiscuous species by manipulating the expression of a single gene.

Of course animal studies of genetic influence on psychiatry rarely have strong correlation to humans. I am no vole.

But imagine if this were applicable to humans. It brings up some fascinating questions. If you were a philanderer but met a woman you loved, would you voluntarily undergo gene therapy to remove this gene? Would you consider a relationship with somebody who had this gene? Would you ask your partner to test for it before making a commitment?

The question is not dissimilar to "Would you sign or ask your partner to sign a prenuptial agreement?"

posted by Sigmund at 21:40

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

So maybe in this brave new world screening for the promiscuity gene would be required for all presidential candidates. And there would be no more stains on the dresses of Whitehouse interns in our great nation...

I only wonder if there will ever be a test for "lying about WMD" genes...

RefinedBeauty

6/19/2004 8:14 PM  
Blogger Sigmund said...

Or perhaps what we would find is a strong correlation between promiscuity and good leadership. And then we'd have to face facts and stop taking our leaders to task over things that are otherwise unimportant to leadership (or focus those issues on religious leaders.)

6/21/2004 10:01 AM  

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