Clarifications on Genes and How They Affect Behaviors

For many people, it's just easier to blame others. When it comes to genetic traits, and your behaviors, can it all really be traced to the genes that you inherited from your parents, that certain structure of genetic code that made you who you are? Yes and no.

If you are smart, then you owe your parents a "thank you" for giving you good genes. But, if "Would you like fries with that?" is a daily phrase because working at a fast food place is the only job you could get after dropping out of high school, then you aren't really able to blame anyone for that. Your genes do not determine your behavior. There are many things that do influence how a person behaves, but their genes aren't one of them.

Our genes indirectly influence our behavior. Their job isn't to determine behavior, instead it is to create, build, and arrange the physical parts of our bodies. Your genes determine how your eyes are created, and with what color your eyes will be. Genes can determine if a body will be small and thin or tall and wide. Genes don't cause someone to want to fight, but if your genes come together to create a body that is tall, large, and able to build muscle easier, then you may very well want to use your body to fight professionally. Although your genes make it easier for your body to cope with a fighting environment, your genes didn't cause you to want to fight.

Many people think that some people are just born to commit crimes. Although certain environments can create stress and foster aggression, this doesn't mean that people living in those environments are "born to kill," instead they simply have certain parts of your brain, mainly the aggression areas, developing more. Like any muscle, the more it is used, the more it becomes developed. This has nothing to do with genes.

Some people have claimed that there is a "suicide gene" and such a claim would definitely make news headlines, such a claim is bogus. There isn't one gene just sitting in some people, causing them to one day kill themselves. It is possible that a complex number and arrangement of genes, can make a person more susceptible to certain behaviors and disorders, but in no way to the genes control this. For some complex psychiatric disorders, there are many different genes involved that contributed to such conditions.

So, now you know that you can't simply blame someone's genes (or your own) for the behaviors that you exhibit. Some things will come easier to some, but some people will have to work harder to learn stuff in school, or to build muscle while exercising. Genes don't make people boxers, gymnasts, scientists, or public speakers, they simply make it easier for some to do such things.