Kate Lynch (University of Sydney), Pierrick Bourrat (Macquarie University)
Heritability and GWAS are often interpreted as measures of degree of genetic causal influence. Yet the exact nature of these causal relationships is often underspecified, and sometimes disputed. As there are multiple ways in which the gene concept is understood, we argue that the causal relationships in heritability and GWAS's differ. This paper takes conceptual differences as a starting point, and then uses an interventionist causal framework to understand the different kinds of causal relationships underpinning both heritability studies and GWAS for complex human traits.
