DNA Is Not Destiny

One of the world’s leading cultural psychologists debunks the hype surrounding DNA testing and puts to rest our mistaken anxieties about our genes.

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Around 250,000 people have had their genomes sequenced and scientists expect that number to rise to one billion by 2025. Steven J. Heine argues that the first thing we will do on receiving our DNA test results is to misinterpret them completely.

In DNA Is Not Destiny, Heine shares his research to not only show what your genes can tell you about your health, intelligence, ethnic identity and family but also highlight the psychological biases that make us so vulnerable to the media hype. Heine’s fresh, surprising conclusions about the promise, and limits, of genetic engineering and DNA testing upend conventional thinking and reveal a simple, profound truth: your genes create life—but they do not control it.