Taking the nature vs. nurture debate to a new level, this fascinating, comprehensive journey into the world of genetic research and molecular biology offers a fresh assessment of the work that has been done in this relatively new field during the last half century-work that has demolished common assumptions and overturned existing theories about what determines our personality and behavior. "An intriguing survey of genetic influence." -- The Bookwatch , October 1999 "A stimulating and highly readable introduction to the nature-nurture debate. . . . Essential for those who want to keep pace with the rapidly evolving sciences that seek to tell us exactly who we are." -- The New York Times Book Review "...well-written and forceful." -- Washington Times "A gifted writer and an astute observer...offers an informative and engrossing account." -- Library Journal "Precise and witty, sensitive and forward looking." -- Booklist William Wright grew up in Philadelphia and graduated from Yale University. He is the author of many books and articles. Wright lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania and Key West, Florida. Born That Way By William Wright Routledge Copyright © 1999 William Wright All right reserved. ISBN: 9780415924948 Chapter One THE CHEMISTRY OF SELF ON A MONDAY MORNING Of a typical workweek, a single woman inher early thirties is awakened by k.d. lang coming over her clock radio.She switches to a classical station and is pleased to hear a Haydn symphony;the soothing rationality of classical music is her preference forstarting the day. After a hot shower, she applies her usual discreetmakeup, then selects a beige suit with gold buttons to wear to theoffice. She wore it only four days ago, but she feels good in it andknows it's becoming. She brews a pot of Yuban French Roast and drinks a cup--milk butno sugar--while skimming the morning paper, which annoys her forhaving nothing about a major film star's arrest on drug charges thathad been mentioned on the eleven o'clock news. An article on theobstructed relief efforts in Zaire upsets her and she resolves to donateanother fifty dollars to Save the Children. On her way to the street, theelevator stops at a lower floor and an unfamiliar man in his fortiesenters and greets her cheerfully. She grunts and feels a complicatedmix of obligatory civility, stranger-fear, violated space, and anger atmale sexual presumption. She yearns for the elevator to reach thelobby. Once outside her building, she resists splurging on a taxi and waitsfor a bus. Finding a seat next to a teenaged boy with books on his lap,one open to a page of graphs, she feels a rush of satisfaction at her successsince leaving college, where her grades were lackluster. But then apang of regret hits-her about career opportunities missed, misstepstaken. The boy indicates he is getting off. She slides into his seat andlooks out the window to see an old man carrying a suitcase stumble onthe curb and almost fall. An urge to help comes over her. The empty seat beside the woman is taken by a tall slender man inhis forties. From the corner of her eye she sees that he has curly brownhair, a trim mustache, and glasses--three of her favorite attributes in amale. She reads her newspaper, but glances at his pants leg so close toher skirt and wonders if his leg is hairy. She forces down an erotic surgeby plunging into an editorial on redistricting. Traffic is moving slowly;she fears she'll be late. A Hispanic man who looks drunk boards thebus and fumbles for the fare as the traffic light turns red. She wants toscream. All of these reactions, concerns, judgments, and decisions mightseem products of conscious thoughts. Or, with more reflection, somemight be traced to the woman's experience, upbringing, or social conditioning.They may, in fact, have sprung from none of these, but mayhave been prompted, wholly or in part, by her genes, those infinitesimalbits of DNA, which thirty years of research tells us influences ourpersonalities, our behavior, and how we respond to the world aroundus. As the woman goes about her day, she draws on her reasoningpower to deal with special situations. Much of the time, however, sheis, like most of us, on semiautomatic pilot, reacting to whatever theenvironment throws at her with ebbs and surges, blips and flashes, ofchemical, gene-rooted responses. As with all humans, her behavior isshaped and guided by signals from the biochemical motherboards thatgenes have created in each of us. The interaction between genes and environment is, we now know,essential to the developing child--and for psychologists the term "environment"means every influence on an organism that is not genetic.Not only in children, but in adults too, the environment can havepowerful effects. But to a greater degree than ever before realized, thegenetic influences on behavior, barring an extraordinary childhood(malnutrition, social deprivation, prolonged abuse), express themselvespretty much as