Human genetic variation

Biology

Demography

Variation (astronomy)

Fallacy

Population

Genetics

Genetic diversity

Argument (complex analysis)

Gene

Physics

Homo sapiens

Astrophysics

Evolutionary biology

History

Human genome

Diversity (politics)

Biochemistry

Philosophy

Sociology

Genetic variation

Epistemology

Genome

Anthropology

Genealogy

BioEssays

In popular articles that play down the genetical differences among human populations, it is often stated that about 85% of the total genetical variation is due to individual differences within populations and only 15% to differences between populations or ethnic groups. It has therefore been proposed that the division of Homo sapiens into these groups is not justified by the genetic data. This conclusion, due to R.C. Lewontin in 1972, is unwarranted because the argument ignores the fact that most of the information that distinguishes populations is hidden in the correlation structure of the data and not simply in the variation of the individual factors. The underlying logic, which was discussed in the early years of the last century, is here discussed using a simple genetical example.

Human genetic diversity: Lewontin's fallacy