Credibility and trustworthiness: the promises of sociogenomic integration and research on gene-environment interaction

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 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. The paper offers a detailed analysis of sociogenomic research on gene-environment interaction (G × 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 × E fall short on both counts: they cannot be said to measure complex dimensions of social organisation such as equality, and they are also not as clearly opposed to genetic determinism as their advocates maintain. I draw out the implications of this state of affairs for sociogenomic integration and for the role of the social sciences within it.