Violence alters human genes for generations, researchers discover

For reference the underlying study is called “ Epigenetic signatures of intergenerational exposure to violence in three generations of Syrian refugees”<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;s41598-025-89818-z" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;s41598-025-89818-z</a>

&quot;There&#x27;s new evidence that historical trauma is passed down through changes to the genome!&quot;<p>&quot;Genome or epigenome?&quot;<p>&quot;...epigenome.&quot;<p>I feel like I read of a similar study every few years, the first I can recall was &#x27;Transgenerational response to nutrition, early life circumstances and longevity&#x27;[1], and it is always needlessly disappointing to thumb through past the headline and read that, inevitably, the media has decided to report this as a change to the genome when the actual research suggests otherwise.<p>Epigenetic changes are interesting in their own right! But they don&#x27;t change human genes, at most they change gene <i>expression</i>.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;5201832" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;5201832</a>

I’ve published in genetics and been at conferences with epigenetics guys and honestly I came out with a low opinion of them. I saw a lot of poor work, p hacking with multiple indices, trawling etc.<p>I just think common sense should make us suspicious of anything having deep heritable effects like this. There are obvious potential confounds here, it’s not at all plausible that exposure to violence is random.<p>See also the excellent <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.razibkhan.com&#x2F;p&#x2F;you-cant-take-it-with-you-straight" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.razibkhan.com&#x2F;p&#x2F;you-cant-take-it-with-you-straig...</a>

Does this rehabilitate Lysenkoism?<p>I am a little confused by how there can be epigenetic genetic modifications. I&#x27;m not a biologist, but it seems to me that if it&#x27;s epigenetic, it&#x27;s not genetic and vice-versa.

While the article frames this phenomenon as self-evidently negative, I suspect the lack of war-related stress is also a driver of island tameness (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Island_tameness" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Island_tameness</a>) in humans. To quote Theodore Roosevelt:<p>&quot;The curse of every ancient civilization was that its men in the end became unable to fight. Materialism, luxury, safety, even sometimes an almost modern sentimentality, weakened the fibre of each civilized race in turn; each became in the end a nation of pacifists, and then each was trodden under foot by some ruder people that had kept that virile fighting power the lack of which makes all other virtues useless and sometimes even harmful.&quot;

Not exactly the &quot;first human evidence of a phenomenon&quot;. There was an article published in 2013 about the 1836 potato famine. Descendants of those who experienced the famine first hand, expressed altered genome due to the stress.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gizmodo.com&#x2F;how-an-1836-famine-altered-the-genes-of-children-born-d-1200001177" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gizmodo.com&#x2F;how-an-1836-famine-altered-the-genes-of-...</a>

I&#x27;m not sure why they are calling out a specific conflict. People don&#x27;t have objective violence barometers. Every act of new worst violence you ever experience is the worst ever until something worse happens.

I&#x27;m perplexed by this university press release. Do they really not link to the underlying research article that they&#x27;re discussing?

The original research[0] is available for free online.<p>It goes into more detail about how they established the genetic signatures and has a lot more images as well.<p>Epigenetic signatures of intergenerational exposure to violence in three generations of Syrian refugees<p>[0] - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;s41598-025-89818-z" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;s41598-025-89818-z</a>

Generational trauma is really hard to resolve. A therapist once told me &quot;family systems don&#x27;t like change.&quot; The really old family dynamics have a way of being passed down and reinforced. We settle into roles that perpetuate them.<p>Interesting that there is not just social pressure but also genetic pressure that may be perpetuating the trauma.<p>My grandfather drove a tank through Europe for the allies during WW2 and I know that is still impacting me and my kids. He self medicated his presumed PTSD with alcohol and died young before I was born. That impacted my father and the way he related to me. And I am sure it impacts how I relate to my kids too. I don&#x27;t drink anymore because that history scares me. The rise in fascist and nationalist ideologies scares me too.<p>If we forget history we are doomed to repeat it. Both at an individual and societal level.

&quot;offers the first human evidence&quot;<p>That&#x27;s untrue. There was plenty of evidence for epigenetics before this study. The one that I remember is the Överkalix study in Sweden.

This is basic Mediterranean basin wisdom, known for a very long time: “I am a jealous God punishing the sins of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” One of the two mentions also says blessings are passed down 1000 generations, both of which seem pretty in line with modern evolutionary and epigenetic theory.

&gt;&gt;“The idea that trauma and violence can have repercussions into future generations should help people be more empathetic, help policymakers pay more attention to the problem of violence”<p>Violence impacts virtually every aspect of human existence. Consider for one moment what life would be like in an alien world in which life existed in the total absence of violence. No wars. No violent crime. No child abuse. No sexual abuse. No police. No prisons. No weapons. No militaries.<p>Violence is a scourge. I have spent the past 20 years discussing the issue of violence with people in RL and online - and it is simply shocking how much males WANT violence. Enjoy violence. Consider it a part of their masculinity and that they would feel neutered in a world without violence. To me, that sense of pride in violence, is the scariest thing I have come across in my 72 year male life. And the saddest for what it portends for the future of our species.

So why won&#x27;t people listen to me that compassion for all human beings is the only excellent choice for us, both personally and in our cultures&#x2F;societies&#x2F;groups?<p>The side that takes pleasure in the misery of others does so because the negative effects can be -- just as this title states -- deleterious for generations.<p>We must evolve ourselves to, instead, sow the seeds of compassionate concern for all human beings to rid ourselves of the damaging effects of abuse of every kind, between any two people or groups of people.<p>Yes, accomplishing any progress in that direction is fundamentally difficult because it goes against our animal physiology and negative potential, not to mention the even more generations of institutional pack mentality that so permeates our cultures&#x27; seeking of power.<p>We could choose peace and compassion, if we chose to, but such a bold endeavor takes utter commitment and real work, for each and every one of us.<p>Compassion is always the solution to <i>ALL</i> our problems, because the lack of compassion is <i>ALWAYS</i> the fundamental cause of <i>EACH</i> and <i>EVERY</i> one.<p>It is both that simple, and that difficult, but it is also rewarding beyond normal comprension, for it is the most real kind of magic in this multiverse.<p>&quot;Love, baby, love.&quot; --Louis Armstrong

I didn&#x27;t read this study, but I can&#x27;t help but comment that past studies on this topic are of dubious quality <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Transgenerational_trauma#Criticism_of_inherited_trauma_via_epigenetics" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Transgenerational_trauma#Criti...</a> so very likely this is nonsense too.<p>I think the main problem is that something like &quot;science proves generational trauma is real&quot; is a nice headline, so people p-hack it into existence. &quot;Science proves that generational trauma is not real&quot; is just a null hypothesis being confirmed - not a publishable result and nobody cares, so you&#x27;ll never hear about it. So be very skeptical of nice headlines, especially in university press releases!

Lots of people here stating that this is an epigenetic change rather than a change in the genetic sequence, which I think is missing the point somewhat.<p>Epigenetic changes are an important part of your genetic make-up. To give you an example, the only reason that your skin cells remain your skin cells when they divide, and your liver cells remain your liver cells when they divide, is due to the epigenetic make up. Their DNA is the same, but the cells are very different, and epigenetics pass that information along when the code is copied.<p>In the same way, these stress-related epigenetic changes are being copied down and inherited by the generation two under.<p>This is already known, I think it was first seen in the Swedish famine cohort. At that time it was not clear it was due to epigenetics, but there was a clear signal in the health of those descendants [1], published here in 2002.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;5200859" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;5200859</a>

&gt; The idea that trauma and violence can have repercussions into future generations should help people be more empathetic, help policymakers pay more attention to the problem of violence<p>Alas, a new target for lasting, inter-generational psychological assault.

In the mid-80s, I was dating someone who was studying genetics at Sac State. One day, I read an article that made the claim that a female dog that has been hit and injured by a car can later have puppies that are inherently afraid of cars. Although I didn&#x27;t think about it with any rigor it seemed within the realm of possibility to me.<p>I mentioned this to her and she *adamantly* refused to accept the possibility.

Do you know if there&#x27;s also been similar research looking into the effects of victims of violence, specifically female rape victims? Having previously been married to a survivor of sexual violence in her teens, I hope similar work is being done to fully understand the gravity of these kinds of events on humans.

I saw a video about a study on Japanese villagers nearby seismic fault or volcanos. And IIRC the villagers facing the dangers directly had different tempers probably driven by the constant risks and traumas from past catastrophes, while the villagers further away and shielded by hills, were calmer.

&quot;Passed down through their mothers, this genetic imprint offers the first human evidence of a phenomenon previously documented only in animals: The genetic transmission of stress across multiple generations.&quot;<p>I wish reporters were required to research their claims.<p>Apart from epigenetics, which influences offspring but confers no permanent genetic change, there is no inheritance of acquired traits. On this topic, for political reasons Joseph Stalin promoted Trofim Lysenko&#x27;s incorrect views in this topic, which set Soviet genetics back decades. More here: &quot;The destructive role of Trofim Lysenko in Russian Science&quot; (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;articles&#x2F;PMC6777473&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;articles&#x2F;PMC6777473&#x2F;</a>)<p>Articles like this should at least explain how and why their claims differ from established genetic principles.

I heard that, in the Netherlands after WW2, the descendants of people who starved were shorter in height even though they were born after the war.<p>Admittedly this was from a Dr Karl podcast.

Reminds me of Scott Alexander&#x27;s “GATTACA II: EPI-GATTACA”: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;slatestarcodex.com&#x2F;2018&#x2F;06&#x2F;19&#x2F;the-gattaca-trilogy&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;slatestarcodex.com&#x2F;2018&#x2F;06&#x2F;19&#x2F;the-gattaca-trilogy&#x2F;</a>

Research area that would be extremely interesting: whether and how epigenetic changes of this type correlated with social-political behavior and values.

Mind over matter. Don&#x27;t forget to meditate, and try to keep the loop running in the background too.

I&#x27;m very interested in this branch of same-generation evolution, as this is one of the core components excluded from Natural Selection theory<p>I&#x27;m very skeptical about it, but they do suggest they have a control group to observe in this study. Despite not being able to pinpoint an actual effect of these genetic markets.

I have Aphantasia. I always wondered whether the physical and emotional violence my mother experienced increased the probability for it. I guess I&#x27;ll never know, but it&#x27;s interesting to see that epigenetics seems to be in play.

Dexter and his brother Brian are perfect examples of this

&gt; The idea that trauma and violence can have repercussions into future generations should help people be more empathetic, help policymakers pay more attention to the problem of violence<p>This seems like a pretty charitable read on policymakers. We inflict violence all the time that has multigenerational downstream effects without a genetic component and we don’t really care about the human cost, why would adding a genetic component change anything?

Meanwhile, in Gaza...

Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance is mostly bogus. This research is usually invoked as an alternative to the much more straight-forward, easily verifiable influences of normie genetics. Since these are not deemed socially desirable, this epigenetic pseudoscience gets millions in funding.<p>See: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www1.udel.edu&#x2F;educ&#x2F;gottfredson&#x2F;reprints&#x2F;2005hereditarian-hypothesis.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www1.udel.edu&#x2F;educ&#x2F;gottfredson&#x2F;reprints&#x2F;2005heredita...</a>

&gt; The idea that trauma and violence can have repercussions into future generations should help people be more empathetic, help policymakers pay more attention to the problem of violence<p>This sounds like it was custom written perfectly to support censorshit. The usual &quot;oh no... hurt feelings&quot; stuff<p><pre><code> amountOfDoubt++;</code></pre>