Who Knows Why People Do What They Do...

In the New York Times, op-ed columnist David Brooks says that as scientists find out more about the interaction of genes and behavior, they are becoming more and more modest or, in his words, "anti-Frankensteins." Human behavior seems to be difficult to unravel through genetics, he says, since genes linked to behaviors, and there could be hundreds, only have small associations. "For a time, it seemed as if we were about to use the bright beam of science to illuminate the murky world of human action," writes Brooks. "Science finds itself enmeshed with social science and the humanities in what researchers call the Gloomy Prospect, the ineffable mystery of why people do what they do."