Gender, Drugs, and Genes: Revealing the Moral Condemnation of Recreational Drugs

First published October 1, 2021 Research Article

https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797621997350

Commentary

Over the past decade, evolutionary psychologists have proposed that many moral stances promote self-interest.

At the same time, behavioral geneticists show that many moral stances have a genetic basis. In this study of Finnish twins and siblings (N= 8,118), twin modeling suggests that genetic factors account for 53%, 46%, and 41% of the variance in drug blame, social sexuality, and sexual aversion, respectively.

In addition, approximately 75% of the phenotypic covariance between drug blame and sexual strategies was found to be genetically amenable to explanation, confirming substantial overlap in the genetic influences underlying both drug blame and sexual strategies. (r g = .41)

The results are consistent with the suggestion that some moral emotions are modulated to promote strategic sexual interests that arise in part from genetic factors.