How Genes Shape Your Risk Taking & Morals | Dr. Kathryn Paige Harden

Huberman Lab

Scicomm Media

Science, Life Sciences, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 30.3K Ratings

🗓️ 9 February 2026

⏱️ 162 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dr. Kathryn Paige Harden, PhD, is a psychologist, behavioral geneticist and professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. We discuss how genes interact with your upbringing to shape your level of risk-taking and morality. We also discuss how genes shape propensity for addiction and impulsivity in males versus females. Finally, we discuss how biology impacts societal views of sinning, punishment and forgiveness. Read the episode show notes at hubermanlab.com. Pre-order Protocols: https://go.hubermanlab.com/protocols Thank you to our sponsors AG1: https://drinkag1.com/huberman BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/huberman Lingo: https://hellolingo.com/huberman Our Place: https://fromourplace.com/huberman Helix Sleep: https://helixsleep.com/huberman Timestamps (00:00:00) Kathryn Paige Harden (00:03:10) Adolescents, Genes & Life Trajectory; Adolescence Ages (00:06:44) Puberty, Aging & Differences; Epigenome; Cognition (00:14:05) Sponsors: BetterHelp & Lingo (00:16:45) Puberty Onset & Family; Communication & Empathy (00:22:26) 7 Deadly Sins, Substance Use & Conduct Disorders, Genes (00:27:33) Family History; Genes & Brain Development (00:33:05) Personality & Temperament, Motivation, Addiction; Trauma (00:37:59) Knowing Genetic Risk & Outcomes; Understanding Family History (00:46:06) Sponsor: AG1 (00:46:57) Genetic Information & Decision Making; Personal Identity & Uncovering Family (00:52:12) Nature vs Nurture, Bad Genes?; Aggression, Childhood & Males (01:00:17) The Original Sin; Whitman Case & Brain Tumor; Genetic Predisposition (01:10:31) Free Will; Genes & Moral Judgement; Skillful Care for Kids; Social Cooperation (01:21:03) Breaking the Cycle; Genetic Recombination & Differences; Identity (01:25:21) Sponsor: Our Place (01:27:01) Status, Dominance, Science; Positive Attributes of Negative Traits (01:36:15) Relational Aggression & Girls; Male-Female Differences & Conflict (01:40:36) Genes, Boys vs Girls, Impulse Control (01:45:00) Behavior Punishment vs Rewards, Responsibility (01:51:29) Sponsor: Helix Sleep (01:53:03) Accountability; Suffering, Cancel Culture & Punishment (02:00:01) Life Energy & Punishment, Prison (02:08:16) Backward vs Forward-Looking Justice; Forgiveness, Retribution, Power, Choice (02:16:11) Reward, Unfairness & Inequality (02:21:59) Punishment, Reward & Power; Online vs In-Person Communities (02:29:49) Identical Twin Differences; Genetic Influence & Age; Sunlight & Genes (02:39:24) Zero-Cost Support, YouTube, Spotify & Apple Follow, Reviews & Feedback, Sponsors, Protocols Book, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter Disclaimer & Disclosures Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	There is a reward that we can see in the brains of people when they see someone suffer
0:08.0	if that person is first portrayed as a wrongdoer.
0:13.0	So ordinarily, if you see someone be shocked, you have interior insula.
0:17.0	It's like you're being shocked too.
0:19.0	Unless that person is first portrayed as violating
0:22.0	some moral or social norm, in which case, dopamine, you get a reward out of seeing that person
0:29.5	punished. I think that it is a lust just as much as lust for substances or lust for
0:36.8	sexual partners. It is a desire people want to see
0:40.6	people punished. Welcome to the Huberman Lab podcast, where we discuss science and science-based
0:46.5	tools for everyday life. I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine.
0:57.4	My guest today is Dr. Catherine Page Hardin.
1:00.0	She is a psychologist and geneticist and a professor at the University of Texas Austin.
1:05.5	Dr. Hardin is an expert in how our genes shape our life trajectory, especially how they interact with life events during
1:11.7	our adolescence and how they impact our long-term mental and physical health.
1:16.2	Today we discuss the interplay of nature and nurture in addiction, criminality, susceptibility
1:22.0	to trauma, and the larger themes of sin, sociopathy, empathy, and forgiveness.
1:27.6	As you'll soon see, Dr. Hardin is unique in her ability to define how biology, psychology,
1:33.0	and the sometimes randomness of life interact to drive people's choices.
1:37.0	Today we talk about known differences between males and females, the role of hormones
1:41.2	and hormone independent influences on male-female differences,
1:44.6	and how people assume different roles in life depending on the power structures they find themselves in.
1:49.9	I want to be very clear that this is not a tap dance around the big issues episode.
	...

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