What genetics tells us about human psychology

I've commented on the African American Lives series a few times. One thing I've said in other threads is that these massively more data rich ancestry analysis tests aren't going to tell you anything you don't already know in 99% of the cases. That doesn't mean that it's not worth it to get tested, but if the kit costs you hundreds or thousands of dollars, most people are really better off passing I think. When these tests get down to the $10-20 range then I'll be sanguine if a friend of mine starts mooting the possibility of purchasing a kit. By analogy, I wouldn't get worked up over a $10 session with an astrologer, but I would get angry if a friend of mine was going to spend $250 on such a thing. Over the past week I have noted is that Henry Louis Gates Jr. has been talking up the fact that he has a high proportion of European ancestry as if it was surprising. My first thought was, "Henry, who you foolin'?" Seriously, I watched his series Wonders of the African World, and walking amongst Africans Gates' white ancestry was rather stark. At one point Gates tells a "Persian" man in Tanzania who seemed to exhibit no evidence of Persian ancestry that in America he would have been considered black. The man was not pleased, but, I also assumed Gates was bringing this up because he himself was far less African looking than the putative "Persian." In any case, here are some pictures: