Kathryn Paige Harden is an American evolutionary psychologist frequently cited by anti-transgender activists, including Helen Lewis, Jesse Singal, Ellen Pasternack, Matthew Yglesias, Sam Harris, Scott Barry Kaufman, and Michael Shermer.
Political scientist Joanna Wuest notes that “Harden has given a new liberal spin to bioreductivism.”
Background
Kathryn Paige Harden was born on May 12, 1982. Harden earned a bachelor’s degree from Furman University in 2003, then attended University of Virginia, earning a master’s degree in 2005 and a doctorate in 2009. Harden began teaching at University of Texas at Austin in 2009. Herden completed internships at Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts.
Harden’s early research was in “sex differences” in impulse control.
References
Pasternack, Ellen (October 23, 2021). Cognitive manoeuvres: The Genetic Lottery is not the only book published this summer to tackle controversial topics in biology. The Critic https://thecritic.co.uk/cognitive-manoeuvres/
Bird, Kevin (November 29, 2021). The Genetic Lottery is a bust for both genetics and policy. https://massivesci.com/articles/genetic-lottery-review-paige-harden-kevin-bird/
Lewis-Kraus, Gideon (September 7, 2021). Can Progressives Be Convinced Genetics Matters? New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/09/13/can-progressives-be-convinced-that-genetics-matters
Carr, Elysa (December 8, 2019). Irresponsible scientific research and media portrayals are hurting trans people. Do better. https://massivesci.com/articles/genetic-gwas-gender-identity-spectrum-binary-stigma/
Singal, Jesse (August 31, 2021). Knowledge Will Out [sic], But In The Meantime Politically Motivated Attempts To Suppress It Can Cause A Lot Of Harm. Singal-Minded https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/knowledge-will-out-but-in-the-meantime
Kirkegaard, Emil O. W. (February 24, 2019). Paige-Harden, Turkheimer and the psychometric left. Clear Language, Clear Mind https://emilkirkegaard.dk/en/2019/02/paige-harden-turkheimer-and-the-psychometric-left/
Harden, Kathryn Paige (November 8, 2021). y’all! good news. there is a world-class research university in Austin that employs academics who study and teach potentially controversial ideas. it’s called @UTAustin [deleted] https://twitter.com/kph3k/status/1457768635305447426
Harden, Kathryn Paige (April 14, 2022). Riskin/Feldman insist that studying some phenotypes in relation to genetics is a “category error.” But the history of psych is full of examples where we change our minds about what type of thing something is…. See: consumption. Psychosis due to syphilis. Autism and “refrigerator mothers.” Schizophrenia and double-binds. Addiction. Sexual orientation. Happening now: gender dysphoria. https://twitter.com/kph3k/status/1514614505648496649
Selected publications
Harden, Kathryn Paige (2021). The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality. Princeton University Press
Harden KP (2014). A Sex-Positive Framework for Research on Adolescent Sexuality. Perspectives on Psychological Science (Vol. 9, Issue 5, pp. 455–469). https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691614535934
Lewis-Kraus, Gideon (6 September 2021). Can Progressives Be Convinced That Genetics Matters?. The New Yorker.
Media
Intelligence Squared (December 16, 2021). The Genetic Lottery: Debunking Myths about DNA, with Kathryn Paige Harden and Helen Lewis. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUAokCq_wwI
Scott Barry Kaufman (September 30, 2021). Kathryn Paige Harden || Genetic Inequality, IQ, and Education. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRkeJzMjH7E
Michael Shermer (October 9, 2021). Episode # 216: Kathryn Paige Harden — The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality. https://www.skeptic.com/michael-shermer-show/genetic-lottery-why-dna-matters-for-social-equality-kathryn-paige-harden/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKPInvMDmFQ
Sam Harris (July 29, 2020). A Conversation with Kathryn Paige Harden (Episode #212). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEwj5avKmtU
Resources
Kathryn Paige Harden (kpharden.com)
University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts (liberalarts.utexas.edu)
- Kathryn Paige Harden
- liberalarts.utexas.edu/psychology/faculty/kh24738
- Developmental Behavior Genetics Lab
- labs.la.utexas.edu/harden
The Texas Twin Project (sites.la.utexas.edu/twinproject)
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
X/Twitter (x.com)
Medium (medium.com)