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Measuring heritability: Why bother?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 September 2022

David M. Shuker Open the ORCID record for David M. Shuker [Opens in a new window]  and
Thomas E. Dickins
David M. Shuker
Affiliation:
School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9TH, UKdavid.shuker@st-andrews.ac.ukhttps://insects.st-andrews.ac.uk
Thomas E. Dickins
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science & Technology, Middlesex University, London NW4 4BT, UK. T.Dickins@mdx.ac.ukhttp://tomdickins.net/
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Abstract

Uchiyama et al. rightly consider how cultural variation may influence estimates of heritability by contributing to environmental sources of variation. We disagree, however, with the idea that generalisable estimates of heritability are ever a plausible aim. Heritability estimates are always context-specific, and to suggest otherwise is to misunderstand what heritability can and cannot tell us.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 45 , 2022 , e175
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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