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| Behavioural genetics is the field of biology that studies the
role of genetics in animal (including human) behaviour. The
field is an overlap of genetics, ethology and psychology.
Classically, behavioural geneticists have studied the
inheritance of behavioural traits. In 1869, Francis Galton
published the first empirical work in human behavioural
genetics, Hereditary Genius. Here, Galton intended to
demonstrate that "a man's natural abilities are derived by
inheritance, under exactly the same limitations as are the form
and physical features of the whole organic world." Like most
seminal work, he overstated his conclusions. His was a family
study on the inheritance of giftedness and talent. Galton was
aware that resemblance among familial relatives can be a
function of both shared genes and shared environments.
Contemporary behavioural genetics studies special populations—in
human rese