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Friends Are Genetically Similar (2014)

nature.com

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Re: Friends Are Genetically Similar (2014)

#31

Post by danans »

fatjokes wrote: post #14
abra_kadabra wrote: post #6

This is interesting as I've typically made friends along lines of interest. I guess my next question would be are genetically similar people more likely to have similar interests. edit: corrected grammer

> I guess my next question would be are genetically people that have genetic similarities more likely to have similar interests. If that is the case, it would lead to the politically uncomfortable question of different genders or ethnic groups being more likely to have particular interests.

The shared interest groups most people are involved in in their regular lives are far too small to make any extrapolation to the larger population.

Also, for many human traits (i.e height), the intra-population variation is much greater than the inter-population variance, especially when controlling for the effect of environment.

We have a tendency to anchor our biases on the extreme examples of any population when we form our biases, often through mediums like elite/pro sports which select those at the extremes.

Re: Friends Are Genetically Similar (2014)

#32

Post by cgag »

okreallywtf wrote: post #17

I have anecdotally noticed this with tall people and short people, I will notice a group of friends who are all 6'2"+, or who are all <=5'7", both of which seem statistically unlikely. There are plenty of more diverse groups (in terms of height) but its hard to say whether they are work friends or something else where you have less overall choice.

My experience is short people mostly get ignored in an otherwise tall group.

Re: Friends Are Genetically Similar (2014)

#33

Post by gph »

choxi wrote: post #7

> The tendency for friends to have similar genomes might result from people befriending those of similar ancestry, but the duo are confident that isn't the case. Not only did they control for the effect of population structure and ancestry, but the Framingham data is relatively homogeneous in terms of ethnicity, consisting largely of people of European descent. How did they control it? Even amongst Europeans, I imagi…

Framingham, MA is old school New England. I wouldn't be surprised if 75+% of the participants are of direct English/Anglo-Saxon descent, even though the article describes it as "European" descent.

Re: Friends Are Genetically Similar (2014)

#34

Post by eighthnate »

choxi wrote: post #7

> The tendency for friends to have similar genomes might result from people befriending those of similar ancestry, but the duo are confident that isn't the case. Not only did they control for the effect of population structure and ancestry, but the Framingham data is relatively homogeneous in terms of ethnicity, consisting largely of people of European descent. How did they control it? Even amongst Europeans, I imagi…

> How did they control it? Even amongst Europeans, I imagine French people are just more likely to have French friends.

This study is in the US. By "people of european descent", they are referring to white americans rather than actual europeans.

Also french is a linguist/national/ethnic classification rather than a genetic one.

Re: Friends Are Genetically Similar (2014)

#35

Post by i_cant_speel »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #2

It would be interesting to cross-reference this with the genetic dissimilarity between enemies, but that's problematic for obvious reasons.

Yeah I agree the results would be interesting as well as hard to collect.

If I were to volunteer for this study, all of my 'enemies' (more just people I don't care for) would either be people who I haven't seen in forever because I don't want to associate with them or people that I see too often that I wouldn't want to bluntly declare as my enemy and deal with the consequences.

Re: Friends Are Genetically Similar (2014)

#36

Post by RivieraKid »

flatline wrote: post #23
fatjokes wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I guess my next question would be are genetically people that have genetic similarities more likely to have similar interests. If that is the case, it would lead to the politically uncomfortable question of different genders or ethnic groups being more likely to have particular interests.

I think it's trivially obvious that they do? The uncomfortable questions are whether people are genetically predisposed to, or naturally have a greater aptitude for, some particular interest, particularly on racial or gender lines. For many physical activities this is a settled question for gender, but that's about all we know. Even this alone is not necessarily controversial, the problem as we've seen time and again…

> The uncomfortable questions are whether people are genetically predisposed to, or naturally have a greater aptitude for, some particular interest, particularly on racial or gender lines.

The answer is obvious here: yes. The only question is the size of the effect.

Re: Friends Are Genetically Similar (2014)

#37

Post by bdamm »

corporateslave2 wrote: post #16
fatjokes wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I guess my next question would be are genetically people that have genetic similarities more likely to have similar interests. If that is the case, it would lead to the politically uncomfortable question of different genders or ethnic groups being more likely to have particular interests.

But you aren't aloud to talk about that openly.

Counterpoint: Here we are, talking about it openly. Even Mr. Damore who previously was employed at Google was and is able to talk about it openly.

Re: Friends Are Genetically Similar (2014)

#38

Post by oh_sigh »

okreallywtf wrote: post #17

I have anecdotally noticed this with tall people and short people, I will notice a group of friends who are all 6'2"+, or who are all <=5'7", both of which seem statistically unlikely. There are plenty of more diverse groups (in terms of height) but its hard to say whether they are work friends or something else where you have less overall choice.

Tall friends could be explained from sports which are useful to be tall like basketball or volleyball teams.

Re: Friends Are Genetically Similar (2014)

#40

Post by jawns »

okreallywtf wrote: post #17

I have anecdotally noticed this with tall people and short people, I will notice a group of friends who are all 6'2"+, or who are all <=5'7", both of which seem statistically unlikely. There are plenty of more diverse groups (in terms of height) but its hard to say whether they are work friends or something else where you have less overall choice.

A few possible explanations:

* People who are statistical outliers tend to seek out similar outliers to form a support network.

* People who are involved in activities in which their physical size is pertinent (e.g. dancers in the Rockettes) tend to befriend others in those activities.

* If height affects success (whether or not that is warranted) and if friendships are stratified along success-based lines, then you might expect groups of friends to have similarities in height.

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