Heritability: Uses and Abuses
Kempthorne O
Statistical Laboratory, Iowa State University, Ames 50011, USA.
Genetica, 99(2-3):109-112 (1997)
Abstract
This paper begins with a brief summary of the history of the development of ideas in the
field of quantitative genetics. Next there is discussion of the controversy surrounding
the contention that IQ tests validly estimate some highly heritable general intelligence
factor. The validity of the reasoning supporting this contention is questioned. The theory
of correlation between relatives has been of vast importance in plant and animal
breeding because it is possible to design and carry out experiments to estimate variance
components in expressions for covariances between relatives. However, data on
humans is observational and individuals are not randomly assigned to environments, so
that estimation of heritability from such data is not on the same firm foundation as it is
in plant and animal breeding contexts.
Variance component linkage analysis