Within Family Studies not Finding What They are Claiming

 More evidence that genome wide association studies (GWAS) find nothing but pop strat and noise. This study debunks the idea that you can look exclusively at family members to assess differences in genetic variation and definitively validate genetic correlations:

Interpreting population and family-based genome-wide association studies in the presence of confounding

The idea is that, since we are looking at family members (brothers, parent/sibling, etc.) and determining whether the relatives with a particular trait have higher polygenic scores (have more of the genetic variants correlated to a trait) versus those who do not have the trait, that will demonstrate that these genetic variations contribute to the person having the trait. 

One recent example is the so-called “Educational Attainment” GWAS. Before doing a within family analysis, they claimed that they found genetic variants that explained 13% of the genetic variance. When they did a within family analysis, this figure dropped down to 2 to 3% (the study does not provide an actual figure and the authors did not provide one at my request. This is an estimate I received from an expert in the field). Rather than focusing on the fact that the 13%  figure was demonstrably bloated, they pivoted to claiming that the 2 to 3% figure proved there was at least “some” genetic contribution to educational attainment. I think that this study suggests, though, that even this small percentage is possibly little more than pop strat and noise. 

After years of these studies, they have nothing at all to show for it. They nonetheless write books and advance careers making these spurious claims. The idea that “educational attainment” is genetic is harmful. It is irresponsible to continue making these claims and it is time to address the likelihood that “behavioral” traits do not have a significant genetic component.