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Kathryn Paige Harden
Kathryn Paige Harden helps organizations rethink fairness and inequality through behavioral genetics and social policy. Paige works with leaders to explore genetics, equity, and moral responsibility, delivering insights as author of Original Sin and professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
Kathryn Paige Harden is a behavioural geneticist who reframes how we think about DNA, inequality, and what we owe one another as a society.
Paige is a professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, where she has directed the Developmental Behavior Genetics Lab for over 15 years. She is the author of Original Sin, called "a daring, complex, and powerful tapestry of a book" by The New York Times Book Review and "the very best of science writing" by geneticist Adam Rutherford.
Her research offers a practical framework for understanding genetic differences not as destiny but as "moral luck," one of the arbitrary inequalities we inherit at birth. By drawing on large-scale studies of twins and genomic data, Paige shows how acknowledging the role of genetics in education, health, and economic outcomes can sharpen our approaches to fairness rather than undermine them. Her work bridges the gap between molecular science and moral philosophy in ways that reshape policy conversations.
Audiences leave her talks with a clearer understanding of how genes interact with environments to produce unequal outcomes, a new lens for thinking about accountability and forgiveness, and concrete reasons why genetic literacy strengthens rather than threatens the case for social justice.
Book Paige to challenge your audience's assumptions about nature, nurture, and what equality truly demands.
Paige brings 15 years of behavioral genetics research to reframe how leadership teams think about talent, fairness, and systemic inequality. Her work translates complex genomic science into actionable frameworks for understanding unequal outcomes without falling into determinism. Ideal for organizations wrestling with equity strategy or rethinking how they assess potential and performance.
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Kathryn Paige Harden draws on large-scale twin studies and genomic data to build an evidence-based framework, presenting genetic difference as "moral luck" to reframe policy conversations around fairness and inequality.
Kathryn Paige Harden speaks on behavioural genetics, the relationship between genetic difference and social inequality, and the implications of genomic science for fairness, policy, and moral philosophy. She is a professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and author of Original Sin, described by The New York Times Book Review as "a daring, complex, and powerful tapestry of a book."
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