This book by Steven Heine, a leader in the field of cultural psychology, explores the relationship humans have between our genes and our behaviors surrounding our genes. It is a clear look at how we view our genes and how that differs from what we can actually learn from them. The premise of the book is that humans are “essentialists”: we believe that “things are as they are because of their underlying essences”; essences are natural, internal, and immutable forces with clear boundaries that create the world around us. We can see this thinking in idioms such as “You are what you eat” as well as in fad diets where it is suggested that the reader follow a diet based on his/her blood type. Humans tend to think of genes in a manner that turns them into the ultimate essence: we believe them to be internal natural, immutable, and they …