My Letter to the UK Biobank

I will update with any reply from them: Update: Reply after the fold - exactly what you would expect ... Double Update: I have deleted the tepid e-mail I received and attached the e-mail that the UK Biobank sent to researchers which appears to lay down the hammer on these shenanigans. Kudos to the UK Biobank and I hope that their actions will match the sentiment of their e-mail.

My Letter:
To Whom it May Concern:

I am writing this letter to express my concern over an apparent misuse of the UK Biobank. I am referring specifically to this study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-13585-5

Genome-wide analysis identifies molecular systems and 149 genetic loci associated with income

It is my understanding that the UK Biobank was conceived to identify health issues related to genetics and one would presume that the majority of those who have provided DNA and other information about themselves, did so altruistically, with the understanding that it would be put to such use in order to aid in the discovery of new disease treatments and to improve health care for the citizens of the UK and beyond. Therefore, I find it rather disturbing that a study that purports to find genes related to a person’s income is given the use of the UK Biobank to make such an analysis. Such studies contain more than a hint of eugenics, and promote the harmful impression that a person’s income is somehow related to their genetic endowment which, among other issues, has political implications related to the current economic system, its validity and fairness.

This study appears to be related to other studies that have utilized the UK Biobank, with many of the same authors, that try to identify genes for “intelligence” and “educational attainment.” Clearly, such studies have created a slippery slope for this type of dubious science to seep into general acceptance and I think they cloud the original intent and purpose of the UK Biobank. Such studies have a sordid history, often embraced by those with a racist agenda, and judging from the interest it is garnering on social media sites, this study is no exception. One might wonder whether the Biobank volunteers would reverse their consent if they understood that their DNA information was being accessed for these dubious purposes.

Moreover, while such studies are nicely self-serving for the highly educated, high-income scientists who perform them, it would probably come as no surprise to most in the UK that the genes particular individuals possess have an influence on how much education and income they receive, considering the long history of social class stratification and the likelihood that such genes are nothing more than identifiers of particular social and racial categorizations, wherein their “income” is heavily influenced by which of these categories they are identified with, rather than some sort of magical genes that provide an entrepreneurial advantage for a select few. There is simply no reason that such studies should be given access to the UK Biobank. They create harmful and erroneous perceptions and divisions and turn the UK Biobank into a political entity rather than an aid to human well being.

In addition, and most importantly, it appears that the authors of this study deliberately misrepresented their intent, claiming that their study would be used to determine “The relationship of cognitive function and negative emotions with morbidity and mortality: an aetiological investigation.” This does not appear to be at all representative of the study they performed, as even the title of the study makes clear. They also apparently applied for an extension with the following rationale:

“One outcome we are also interested in exploring in relation to prior cognitive function and other factors is dementia. For instance, we would like to investigate the extent to which prior cognitive function helps predict later onset of vascular dementia independently of other risk factors. We have research experience in the cognitive epidemiology of dementia. This is not an outcome that we specified in our original application so I am writing to ask for approval to expand the scope of our project to include dementias as an outcome.”

Anyone reading this study can see that both of these descriptions have little to do with the true focus of the study and, in reality, are a complete misrepresentation. It seems clear that they were just gratuitously added in order to give the study the kind of authenticity it would need to secure the use of the UK Biobank, with the knowledge that it otherwise did not merit it, or more sinisterly, was part of an attempt to perform a study that would be otherwise viewed as ethically questionable. It is a fraudulent and hubristic maneuver, that shows a disdain for the intent and spirit of the UK Biobank, and is arguably scientific misconduct. Although this and other such studies will pay lip service to health and well-being issues, it appears much more likely that these issues are merely a “Trojan Horse” for their true intent, which is a scientific justification for societal privilege and elitism by way of genetic determinism.

I would like to suggest that the UK Biobank apply more scrutiny to studies of this nature, and ask you to consider preventing the authors responsible for this study from further access to the UK Biobank.

As noted, I removed the intitial response to my e-mail and have provided the e-mail sent out to UK Biobank researchers after the fold:

Perhaps We Have a Use for These GWAS, Afterall

In my last post, I briefly critiqued this study absurdly correlating genetics to income and offered a challenge to the authors. My opinion of GWAS is obvious to anyone who skims through this blog, but it occurs to me that perhaps we might have a use for GWAS, afterall, as I recently tweeted:

Here’s a different take: The extent to which you can correlate genes to income in a society, is a direct measure of the unfairness and class stratification of that society. 

If we assume, as I do, that most genetic correlations in the behavioral genetics realm are due to population stratification, then we know that any genetic correlations would demonstrate ways in which the society is stratified. This could be in obvious ways such as racial delineations, but might also include more subtle classist issues (He/She is not from the right family...) and would be an even better way to measure more covert discrimination. By the way, I think this is provable in the sense that other societies will have entirely different loci correlated to income, a fact that will cause a lot of mental gymnastics to explain away.
If we can't prove the causality of the genes flagged in such studies, shouldn't we assume that they are an indication, of an unfair stratification of the society? If we could rid ourselves of all such genetic commonalities, wouldn't that lead us to a true meritocracy? Therefore, wouldn't it make sense and be more fair to give job and college admission preferences to those with the LOWEST polygenic scores for income? As the very "not racist" individuals who embraced this study and took me to task on Twitter pointed out, shouldn't we pursue the truth wherever it happens to lead?

A Challenge to the "Income" Genes Clan

I was going to do a longer critique of this study:

Genome-wide analysis identifies molecular systems and 149 genetic loci associated with income

However, I do a lot of these and it seems like I  go after each head of a hydra, only to be met with one more absurd than the last.  Instead I am going to say a couple of things and offer a challenge to the authors. This study claimed to have found 30 loci associated with income (29 novel). They then went digging around the UK BioBank, for which many of the authors in this study are all too familiar, and used MTAG for other dubious phenotypes, like "Educational Attainment", and "intelligence" to crank up another 120 associations. Imagine the assumptions of the authors regarding income, our economic system, the illusion of meritocracy, IQ, the primacy of income, and the fantasy that you can add up a bunch of genetic variants and determine the likelihood of a high or low income for a person.

A couple of points about the 30 loci noted above. First, there were only 2 previous loci correlated with this trait in the past. So one of the two was not significant. You might think, well, at least they replicated one loci. However, the previous 2 loci come from a smaller version of the same damn UK BioBank dataset. Thus, even though they were using some of the same data as their last study (yes, same authors, same database), one of the loci didn't reach significance with additional data. So what we really have are 30 "novel" loci, that have never been replicated. This, in my opinion, is what one might view as a "screening study." So, good, go and do a GWAS of an INDEPENDENT dataset that you haven't been turning upside down for the past 5 years and see if any of these same loci meet significance instead of trying every kind of gymnastic exercise to correlate these likely false positives into something meaningful.

In fact, I challenge the authors of this study to do a GWAS for "income" on an independent dataset other than the UK BioBank, which at this point is like playing poker when you can see what's in everyone else's hand, and see if you can even replicate a single one of these loci. I'll even handicap you and say you can use all white people again, but somewhere other than the UK. 

If you can't replicate any of these loci, then admit you are playing a shell game, pack up your shit and go find a real, honest job, instead of fueling the prejudices of Charles Murray and Quillette.