&gt; generally agreed upon to be negative<p>IMO it&#x27;s worth being very careful in any genetic discussion (epi- or otherwise) before declaring an adaptation to be &quot;negative&quot;, especially if it&#x27;s probably the result of thousands or millions of years of &quot;battle tested&quot; evolutionary winnowing that we can&#x27;t really see and appreciate. (For example, the side-bonus of sickle-cell anemia is resistance to malaria.)<p>At best we have to add a big load of qualifiers, e.g.: &quot;For this group in this context during this infinitesimal slice of human history, it didn&#x27;t seem to help.&quot;