We are on the cusp of an enormously exciting era advances in genetics and science are giving us new tools. Human societies, policies and economies. Id like to say at the outset we are poised at a moment in history that would produce the coming years so People Like Us off to be excited. Its an orthodoxy that is scared stiff and biology. At the moment it takes a form of three largely proclaimed truths. Gender is a social construct and race is a social construct a. Collapse as a function of privilege. Ive stated those very boldly. On these issues you will find many of them have a much more nuanced view than that and acknowledge they play a role what it amounts to is i set out in this book with the aim of demolishing the academic orthodoxy making it easier for the same members of academia to do the work i am probably overreaching enough gold. As a way of framing the findings in the things i think we really dont need to argue about it anymore i set out the propositions. The quickest way to summarize the book is with those propositions. The first four consistent with Current Practice among a growing number of specialists with the word gender and return type often dispense with it is because its playing havoc with my inability to read my text. Hang on a second. Differences in personality are consistent worldwide and attempt to widen more in the cultures. The consistency is quite remarkable everywhere women are on average and i always stress the word we are talking about the differences with big overlaps and distributions they are on average higher on the measures towards others all true mystic concern, sensitivity and sociability. Men are on average more reserve, utilitarian and fundamental solitary. These tendencies hold true in every culture with no exception. Contrary to the expectations of the social construct, they tend to widen the cultures that are gender egalitarian such differences the personalities in the country like denmark mar uganda. A very interesting phenomenon we have a chance to talk about. Worldwide they have advantages to be verbal ability and social cognition while males have advantages and spatial abiliti abilities. It is about the same in both of males have a substantial advantage of the ability. There is no advantage to either. Men and women just have distinctive cognitive profiles. Proposition number three, on average, women worldwide are more attractive to those centered on people and Vocations Center on things. This dichotomy with men and women is a very bold way of thinking about male actually widely accepted by a lot of people now. It certainly holds true for the personality and cognitive strengths as i just described it also holds true for the vocational choices. Primarily those specialties that is of those interpersonal reactions perkel with problem is that many such differences are coordinate with such differences of social behavior is also a very dense chapter i wish i couldve made it easier but its very complicated and i wish we could take how fascinating this is but i have six more to get through. May be with you in a week and get back to this. Now with the propositions regarding race but i discard the word race and substitute for ancestral population. This is not a silly direct change. Race as a word really has a lot of cultural baggage is appropriate to substitute Something Else talking about genetics. Number five those are genetically distinctive of self identified race and ethnicity. So why is it you can send in some of your saliva to 23 and me with 100 and get back 40 thought get information 45 percent bavarian and 31 percent polynesian they can do that a very sophisticated work with that characterize populations around the world. These are not genetic bits of information. They just show distinctive patterns. You. With race and ethnicity and that would be impossible its a sure thing. At those pressures has been extensive in mostly local. The linchpin of the social construct advanced that humans left africa to recently for evolutionary changes to revolve perkel thats true if we talk about through random mutation but in the last 15 years with genome sequence evolution of changes of standing variation can be and often has been rapid so changes are confined to one continent. I know im going through these fast it with these differences those variants associated with social behavior. Over the last five years hundreds of thousands of those variants have been identified that are associated with traits or personality or social behavior. And i just have to spit out the variances are very small. Very close to absolute perfect correlations. But starting to compare east asians with europeans but with those changes between. 52. Eight but then you have lots of differences. And its more that i just said for a variety of reasons. First it is technically very complicated second you need to have very large samples from all relevant populations in order to make authoritative statements. But they are not here yet. To send a simple warning that reality is the geneticist are looking at genetic distinctions that are radically different from those expectations by race is a social construct. By proposition number eight but to play a minor role to explain personality im pretty sure we can argue about this that parenting and schools that we find for our kids the neighborhood where we live doesnt make nearly as much different how the kids turn out as we like to think. And from 1998 and steve pinker made it famous from the black one from the blank slate. With those differences and ability with the biological component if success requires those abilities and prestige depend on success than social standing will be based on inherited differences among people. And in the final proposition and those are inherently concerned on personality and abilities and social behavior. To be the most fiercely contested into change personality or social behavior crucial distinction. And inspirational teacher introduction trajectory with another one to have a drug problem to change at trajectory absolutely. And to those in a cookiecutter fashion with those in the shape of the coming revolution and is still up for grabs. In transforming the social sciences with getting attention from wellknown scholars is just the beginning. Intel has so much anger and angst and namecalling and let me conclude by spelling out what i do not argue. With determinism the role of the environment those of genes and environment are elusive for decades to come. With the abundance of unpredictability with genetic and we are not helpless to change lives sexes are races or classes in the hierarchies that go from superior to inferior. Human beings are way too complicated for that. On the contrary i explicitly reject such claims i suggest anyone that reads a book have any confusion about my position on these things. Those that write about my books to read them. That everybody should just calm down with objective diversity. With it is not scary or earth shaking but the other subtext of human diversity is that it will open if we like it or not and the proper response is that is interesting. To ensure the discovery wont be created but it should be. Thank you very much. [applause] i dont have formal remarks. First of all thank you very much for having me i thank you picked the right sociologist in terms of sharing your enthusiasm about the role of genomics for social science revolution but that proposition and that why youre not controlling for that that apologetic score for of that opinion with the social and Behavioral Sciences like your metaphor and while i am stunned by your ability you said you started about three years ago to come into a thicket not just of genetics that the neuroscience and not only to assimilate a wide swath to make it completely accessible of the educated lay audience. So my three sections of the social construction on race. Not an expert on gender or neuroscience. I do have some thoughts but thats not and my wheelhouse so i will live that long ashley that your area. To with ancestral populations and with social and behavioral traits. So start with the social construction of gender for that matter. So if you dispensed with it and talk about ancestry which is a really good reason and gender specifically about the social relationships and then that changes a clot on across place and race as a social category it could be will buy a drop of saliva but not the same thing. If everybody sent their saliva into 23 and me and ancestry. Com we would be hit about 90 percent accuracy to self identified race. The classical us definition of white, nonhispanic or white or black hispanic, africanamerican or black and asian and then to be a diverse population with other interest is of race that are entirely divorced to take for example in japan comprised of 3 percent of the population of all the social and Health Disadvantages lower test scores in Life Expectancy higher diabetes. To physically indistinguishable and genetically indistinguishable with the majority. And then with the Homeless People to displace of the 14th and 15th century. And with the perspective son and daughterinlaw. Take my wifes former homeland yugoslavia you cannot imagine a more racially charged and including genocide there is no distinction between those groups. Literally murdering each other. So a lot of times there is a biological issue with race and sometimes there is not thats why we want to preserve that distinction between ancestry and biology. But here we get into a lot of complicated issues. With the choices of dna. And those i have the particular location to take population that you are citing is a apologetics for how people go there was a series of papers because each location where you could have thats why you are smarter than me and i have a a to say that you in a little further during his long school. And then to predict to go farther in school. We take that to take that for a new sample and that we tested it and with that educational bait payment it is not the majority but is not trivial either. That almost all human traits that we care about our extremely apologetic. Or the gene for Breast Cancer or the personality thousands if not human effects so if you try to discover those effects the massive sample size hence the one. 1 million person when you magnify those effects it is all sorts of biases as well. With ten or 13 or 14 percent but that is wrong. Were just in the netherlands and then of those self self metabolic rates with accuracy based on dna in the netherlands you could probably locate people in which region they are in pretty darn well with their dna as well. Whether the north of england or the south of england even with the longitudinal study. And then to separate geographically in the state and environments are different. That it doesnt have pure genetic offense sweeping up environmental differences and the differences of the population and eastern europeans and asians you are necessarily sweeping up culture and history and so forth. There is a second and founder we are dealing with. Because if i share 50 percent of my genes with each of my parents i get the direct effect of my body and the development to my genes but that is in my parents to structure my environment that is partly motivated so the whole nature dichotomy house crumbled in the last few years with the discovery of genetics. But im just amazed but in 2030 it is probably genic scores based on a very different model if you have a brother or sister but i have a sister i have gg and she has ga that is a truly difference than that is a nice experiment. And then to be much more certain of the genetic affect. Will take a few years before we get to those more pure estimates of those effects. With the ancestry groups and there is evidence against that. There is a paper that just came out yesterday that i think coincidentally with your book. [laughter] that talks about the education or iq promoting genes that if you take those wheels from african and asian populations. All that Research Done in european populations to limit those confounding environments but that probably genic score predict variation if you take the apologetic score and then you predict them to be 6 inches shorter than they are so that doesnt work for biological reasons. And what they are tagging and we have a paper and ethnic Homogeneous Group and vice versa of all that genetic stuff so the prediction falls apart we are at the infancy of this im excited about it as well and genetics to do more straight social policy and the best example of how fast you can go from ideas to policy. To have welfare reform in 1996 and then to give a run for your money now. Write your book and maybe when you are dead and ef hutton is the policy world. And what do we get even by virtue across racial groups how does that inform policy to School Reform and almost as skeptical of the scalability of those policies has incredible room for all ideas the reduction of matter of the Clean Air Act is one of the biggest factors of the racial test score gap. Talk about policy for reducing disparities or the cognitive or educational potential to have school or welfare policy we can think very broadly where we know the real effects with all the criticisms that we get from these other interventions. And would love to hear with policy and i forget about race thing and i know i am over time that one other logical revision to solve affordability that more african ancestry leading to lower test scores it could be entirely through skin tone. And theres no way to falsify that possibility. How much african or european ancestry with the effect on educational payment for test scores so thats more of the ideal experiment and to make sure and to make sure the teaser crossed and eyes are dotted there is very little i disagree with. In the book or in general. The reasons that this is exciting right now because of its potential but the apologetic scores are where they are in 19 oh eight and it can barely do anything. With the battlefield of world war i as they were shooting each other down a short period of time and wont that be fun the incredible complexity is what i agree with. To see if the difference the coffee drinking habits as a genetic component everybody is being reasonable. Its very difficult to figure it out. To be more on my side than on grams although id be interested to find out about that. But eric is joined by many others and he says probably genic scores dont tell us one damn thing that we dont know already and they never will. Hes not saying theres a lot of complications to be unraveled. He makes the case saying Something Like divorce or marriage has in heritability we know that already but it doesnt have a specific genetic genealogy it doesnt matter how long we look but i am of the view we are on our rapid the rising curve the progress has been phenomenal just to give you an illustration going into a conference at the galapagos in 2014 i wanted to find all those associated with a specific economy your trade or behavioral Trader Personality trait for i can only find eight and that was six years ago that is extraordinary progress so a great deal of what he said i thoroughly agree with. He mentioned ray specifically but i would throw in gender with that if you want to know the truth its much more important to have genetic differences of ancestral population and i will tell you why. Because we have all sorts of policies from spokes teams and high schools to the selection of combat units. Between males and females and that can lead to and that has been substantial. And its Getting Better now but it was bad in the seventies and eighties and then chose to stay at home. The menu shouldnt stigmatize women. Not to destigmatize those that do not so sex as a social construct is a really good example. Because of social harm. I will give you a chance to come back policy implications im in terms on i agree with you. Meant to be perfectly willing to accept and that we can still do. I still think there is way too much driven by elites i think thats toxic to have policies that focus to be found at its broadest. Is not necessary to be a princeton professor it is the best of intentions. So i would like to move in that direction. Now that you all have understanding of this complex material you mentioned they have this attitude the lower cognitive abilities are inferior and your book implicitly seems to believe that that if there were differences of cognitive ability, it might imply a difference. So why do you think that they think that . Because i hung out with those people all my life. [laughter] actually i had what i thought was a really clever thought experiment working on the bell curve. I said this will be great. First i want you to think of someone you are pretty sure has an iq 20 or 30 points lower than yours. Do you feel sorry for that person . I assume as i found out most people say yes i do. And i said now think of someone you know who has an iq 20 or 30 points higher than you do. Do you feel inferior . And appalling proportion was yes. [laughter] so to me that goes up against that we all think we have a high enough iq but to answer your question, look at the campaign. Those with flyover country and then to only get pushback is ethnic. There are all sorts of indication with no more than anecdotal data. The last part of the book we make the argument i would argue that is the result of the free market policies promoted with shareholder value and bottomline and then to compare us to france to be a waiter is a profession with pride of the social expectations and to maintain and hear something you are doing and hollywood that is looked down upon elites that we value in the cognitive spear one sphere. Literally the worst example of the place and there is a reason for that and it doesnt have to do with social policies and culture. That said arguing that these differences are the result the biological differences can go one of two ways. And then it turned out not to replicate and then these gay activists embracing these genetic differences between gay men and straight men. Your paving the road to auschwitz. The first step historical with that elimination i was wrong and they were right in to see that not causation but we have seen an incredible flourishing of tolerance for nonheterosexual behavior to go hand in hand with the increasing recognition there is biological or genetic element to sexuality for example yet it doesnt work always like that and with the trade by trade basis and then to be flip and its very different then you see that schizophrenia and to be tolerant of the psychopathic behavior of the choice to be environmentally influenced so even those implications and by what group they are talking about. And thinking of the scholars and then in pursuit that if you are looking for a place that is interested in Human Flourishing and dignity than unbridled capitalism. Other questions . I will not stand up but you talk about the idea that elites feel as though we must make all children aboveaverage. But actually i am not entirely sure that is true. I would like to push you a little bit on that. I think the problem elites and non elites would acknowledge we have not made any children average with more gender equal society expressed in even more divergent ways but that also notes that we are not a gender equivalent society yet so wouldnt it be important to get their first before deciding we are okay with some people falling behind that they cannot express what they want to express then leading to my actual question we talk about Human Flourishing for all with poly genic to mention genetic differences to allow us to help people pursue where they fall or the cognitive behavior looks like so what is your idea of Human Flourishing and how does that differ for people with differing cognitive repertoires . I will give a real brief answer. The way i see education in this country until the last few years it was everybody should go to college that says everybody should be above average because it no longer requires where it is accessible its a much smaller number than im prepared to say out loud because i dont want to have to defend it. But the policy every child should go to adulthood having discovered something they love to do and having learned how to do it well that is the kind of policy for educational Human Flourishing applying to any level of ability the way we measure success we have a radically different Education System from what we have now. We have final remark. I think i have said enough. [laughter] i think i have said enough. This is been a pleasure. Thank you very much privatization was a simple concept to shut down the v. A. Medical center in the Healthcare System giving a voucher to say go find your own health care and we will pay the bill that is the ultimate goal of privatization and there is a strong belief that government should not be blot dash involved in the service we talk about this earlier the governments involvement that doesnt mean they should not have the ability to go into the private sector when it is in their best interest or specialized care is available. We all believe that should be available. But my belief is that complete privatization of the v. A. Would be a disaster and we look back when veterans are not getting the care that they deserve to say how do we recreate a system that cares for them . I dont want to see us go in that direction 19 percent of the v. A. Was getting care when i left it was 36 percent so i was strongly in favor of not having veterans get inferior care or waiting for care if the v. A. Could not do it but we got them into the private sector this is an issue that there are policies pursued by those who favor the dismantling of the v. A. They do not raise their hand to say they are in favor of privatization that would be politically unpopular so they will not say that but if you watch the impact of these policies over the years that will come, i believe they will lead to a point there is complete privatization of the v. A. And what i try to say in what i argue in the book we need to come out and say what will happen or very closely monitor to make sure theres not the unintended consequence before its too late. There is the appropriate will of congress have oversight to make sure they are looking at what is happening and im trying to essentially waive lets be cautious i am optimistic where the v. A. Is going i am supportive where the v. A. Is going but being an expert in healthcare ic warning signs and i want to make sure we are vigilant that there are not the unintended consequences toward privatizing the v. A. Thank you for coming to politics and prose i am part of the event staff here we host close to 1000 events per year at the three locations everything is confirmed to the website or pick up our flyer. Before we get started please silence your cell phone and when its time for q a i will pass around the microphone cspan is f