Sugar and spice

Even as little as two decades ago, science writers could not assume that the word ‘gene’ was widely understood. It had to be defined and discussed. Today, stories about genes for various traits come so thick and fast that journalists no longer need to pause and explain what genes are. Awareness of material inheritance is now widespread. The only problem is that everyday parlance has simplified a complex situation. A scientist reminding us of polygenetic characteristics, predispositions, and nature versus nurture easily sounds like a tiresome prevaricator, unable or unwilling to clarify something that is really very simple. Everyone knows (wrongly) that there are genes for aggression, obesity and homosexuality. It is against this background that one recent media furore should be assessed. The occasion was the publication of a paper by Skuse and his colleagues [1] which dealt with ‘social cognition’ — those aspects of cognition that facilitate smooth social relationships. The authors said that their observations “suggest that there is a genetic locus for social cognition, which is imprinted and is not expressed from the maternally derived X chromosome.” In an accompanying commentary McGuffin and Scourfield [2] provided helpful background and then highlighted one implication of the work. “Throughout most of the second half of this century, with the increasing emphasis on sexual equality, there has been a tendency to play down the possible role of biology in accounting for psychological differences between men and women,” they wrote. “Now, for the first time, we have evidence about the location of a gene that plays a part in behavioural sexual dimorphism, challenging the prevailing belief that gender differences are largely culturally determined.” Presented with a topic of abiding human interest, combined with the high frontier of human genetics, the media had a field day. Tabloid and broadsheet newspapers, television current affairs programmes and radio talk-ins publicized the new gene and how it accounted for the differing social skills of men and women. On 12 June the front page of The Guardian announced that “Genes say boys will be boys and girls will be sensitive”. As compared with many other headlines, this was comparatively restrained.