I don’t think observing that folks in the Middle East drink much less, due to a religious prohibition, is evidence for or against this post’s hypothesis. It can simultaneously be the case that evolution discovered this way of preventing alcoholism, and also that religious prohibitions are a much more effective way of preventing alcoholism.
Yes, but it seems like the genetic predisposition hypothesis is about or at least usually framed as “East Asians vs. others (unless there are other groups where genetic predispositions are relevant)”. Implying to test the protective effect of one trait, you want to see if East Asians who have the trait at higher levels differ from all others (presumably not having the trait at all, or at lower levels?). Yet the patterns/statistics for alcohol consumption or problems with alcoholism doesn’t line up with “East Asian vs. the rest” as opposed to the West and the rest. What seems more notable to me is why the West is higher than everyone else. As opposed to East Asians who drink a middling amount (relative to the world) neither particularly high or low, and many East Asian countries are within the range of the west.
I suppose you could make the argument that East Asians would drink even more (perhaps as much as or even greater than the highest western countries) if not for the genetic predisposition that puts a brake on it. But counterfactuals are hard, and I don’t know what would be an easy way to test that.
I don’t think observing that folks in the Middle East drink much less, due to a religious prohibition, is evidence for or against this post’s hypothesis. It can simultaneously be the case that evolution discovered this way of preventing alcoholism, and also that religious prohibitions are a much more effective way of preventing alcoholism.
Yes, but it seems like the genetic predisposition hypothesis is about or at least usually framed as “East Asians vs. others (unless there are other groups where genetic predispositions are relevant)”. Implying to test the protective effect of one trait, you want to see if East Asians who have the trait at higher levels differ from all others (presumably not having the trait at all, or at lower levels?). Yet the patterns/statistics for alcohol consumption or problems with alcoholism doesn’t line up with “East Asian vs. the rest” as opposed to the West and the rest. What seems more notable to me is why the West is higher than everyone else. As opposed to East Asians who drink a middling amount (relative to the world) neither particularly high or low, and many East Asian countries are within the range of the west.
I suppose you could make the argument that East Asians would drink even more (perhaps as much as or even greater than the highest western countries) if not for the genetic predisposition that puts a brake on it. But counterfactuals are hard, and I don’t know what would be an easy way to test that.