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Letter: Driving genes

Published 20 April 2005

From Ben Haller

Kids take after their same-sex parent in their driving style, according to new research (26 March, p 14). But your article seems to jump to the conclusion that the link is environmental: that kids are watching their parents and imitating them.

What makes the researchers think this is not genetically based? One would expect many underlying factors, including aggression and risk tolerance, to have genetic components, and I see no reason why these could not be sex-linked to some degree. After all, there are many other ways in which boys resemble their fathers and girls resemble their mothers, many of which are presumably genetic.

Menlo Park, California, US

Issue no. 2496 published 23 April 2005

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