Photograph by: Mark Mahaney
Sorting out the competing yet complementary influences of genes and culture is a problem that has captured the attention of some of the most talented scientific minds. Researchers have looked for genes that influence behavior regardless of cultural context. In her first foray into the world of genetics, social psychologist Heejung Kim is taking a decidedly different approach by examining how culture shapes individuals' responses to their biological inheritance. In doing so she is creating a profound new framework for how to think about our genetic and cultural backgrounds.
"Genes don't really tell humans how to behave," says Kim, an assistant professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. For instance, she says, "As someone who has highly stress-reactive genes, how do I cope when I'm experiencing stress? That's not told by my genes. That's told by my culture. Certain genotypes do not lead to predictable outcomes in different cultures."
Kim had already explored how differing cultural norms in European American and Asian cultures influence responses to stress and coping, demonstrating that European Americans are far more likely than Asians to seek social support in times of stress. Now Kim is adding genetics to the equation by looking at a gene involved in transport of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Certain versions of this gene are known to make individuals more sensitive and emotionally reactive to stress. Kim, along with collaborators in the US and Korea, is now studying European Americans, Korean Americans, and Koreans who have these mutations that are associated with high reactivity to stress.
The research is ongoing, but preliminary investigation reveals that certain cultural differences are particularly pronounced among people with genotypes that make them more prone to stress. In other words the gap in social-support seeking between European Americans and Asians with a genetic predisposition to stress is even larger than it is between European Americans and Asians who are less sensitive to stress. "Among certain genotypes, cultural differences are magnified," Kim says. In this way, culture may act to diversify the phenotypes—or behaviors—that accompany certain genetic mutations. "Using this particular case of social support, we can develop a paradigm of how to look at the interaction of culture and genes," she says. "That's the big goal."
Listen: a discussion with Heejung Kim