Critical Social Science

Small assumptions can make colossal differences. Tobacco is safe. What’s good for Wall Street is good for Main Street. Genes influence everything we do – and twin studies allegedly prove it. Even when a myriad of environmental and social factors actually are acknowledged, genes nevertheless are said to affect everything that matters about human behavior,…

“There is a danger of concealing assumptions which have no factual basis behind an impressive façade of flawless algebra.”                                    — Lancelot Hogben, 1933[1] The debate on the validity of twin research has recently resurfaced in the field of American criminology, and has major implications for other areas of behavioral research as well. Criminologists Callie…