Bondarenko, Olesya (2026) Credibility and trustworthiness: the promises of sociogenomic integration and research on gene-environment interaction. [Preprint]
![[img]](https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/fileicons/text.png) |
Text
Credibility and trustworthiness_Bondarenko_accepted version.pdf Download (432kB) |
Abstract
This paper provides a philosophical examination of the integrative field of sociogenomics which seeks to incorporate genomic tools into social science research on individual outcomes. I characterise sociogenomic integration as being guided by two main promises, which I define as the promises of credibility and trustworthiness. I demonstrate that for the social sciences, this type of integration has been associated with the promise of epistemic credibility, especially in the context of claims about the causal effects of the social environment. In turn, for behavioural genetics and genomics, the introduction of theoretical resources from disciplines such as sociology is thought to generate ethical trustworthiness by supporting a non-determinist, sociocontextual perspective on the role of genetic factors in individual outcomes. I provide a detailed analysis of sociogenomic research on gene-environment interaction (G x E) to illustrate what the two promises entail and to examine whether they are being convincingly realised by this type of inquiry. I argue that sociogenomic studies of G x E fall short on both counts: they do not provide a credible means of measuring complex dimensions of social organisation such as equality, and they are also not as clearly opposed to genetic determinism as the advocates of this research maintain. I draw out the implications of this state of affairs for sociogenomic integration and for the role of the social sciences within it.
| Export/Citation: | EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL |
| Social Networking: |
| Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creators: |
|
||||||
| Additional Information: | Forthcoming in the European Journal for Philosophy of Science. | ||||||
| Keywords: | Sociogenomics, integration, credibility, trustworthiness, gene-environment interaction | ||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Biology > Molecular Biology/Genetics Specific Sciences > Psychology General Issues > Science and Society Specific Sciences > Sociology General Issues > Values In Science |
||||||
| Depositing User: | Dr. Olesya Bondarenko | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 18 May 2026 11:08 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 18 May 2026 11:08 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 29679 | ||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Biology > Molecular Biology/Genetics Specific Sciences > Psychology General Issues > Science and Society Specific Sciences > Sociology General Issues > Values In Science |
||||||
| Date: | May 2026 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/29679 |
Monthly Views for the past 3 years
Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years
Plum Analytics
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
![[feed]](http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/feed-icon-32x32.png){kind=icon}