Rate My Professor Paige Harden

Harden's research investigates genetic and environmental influences on adolescent development, including risk-taking, pubertal timing, executive functions, psychopathology, substance use, academic achievement, and socioeconomic disparities, employing twin studies, polygenic scores, and sociogenomics approaches. She has authored over 150 peer-reviewed publications, including 'Genetic determinism, essentialism and reductionism: Semantic clarity for contested science' in Nature Reviews Genetics (2023), 'Using genetics for social science' in Nature Human Behaviour (2020), and 'Polygenic associations with advanced mathematics coursetaking in U.S. high schools' in npj Science of Learning (2020). Her books are The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality (Princeton University Press, 2021) and Original Sin: On the Genetics of Morality (2026). Harden has received the American Psychological Association's Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology (2017), the Fulker Award for Best Paper from the Behavior Genetics Association (2016), the Jacobs Foundation Early Career Research Fellowship (2017-2019), and the Dads’ Association Centennial Teaching Fellowship from UT Austin (2018). Her contributions have influenced the integration of behavioral genetics into developmental, clinical, and social sciences.