Genetic Engineering: How Would You Modify Your 'Ideal' Child If You Could Change Its DNA?

Soon, we will be able to genetically modify our children and eventually even ourselves.

I've already written several posts about CRISPR Cas9, the gene editing method that will allow us to change parts of our DNA, therefore changing specific features about our body our personality as well.

With the innovation of CRIPSR came many ethical questions - are we going to have genetically modified "designer babies" in the future, who are all good-looking and talented in every way?!

We don't know if that will happen anytime soon, but still it's an interesting thought experiment.
1,000 participants (500 from the US, 500 from Europe) participated in an Online Survey to answer questions about exactly this scenario:

What would you change about your baby if anything was possible?

Here are the answers!

Differences between Europeans and US-Americans

- Personality Traits -

First, let's look at how Europeans and Americans would design their perfect baby's personality traits.
For both, Intelligence is the most important factor (half of the votes!), closely followed by creativity. It's interesting to note how highly creativity is ranked compared to the other traits!
Next, Americans would want their kids to be kind and then charismatic, while Europeans are tied between courage and kindness. Courage isn't even considered by Americans.
On 5th place, we have charismatic on the European side and independent on the American side. Again, interesting to note how "independent" isn't even on the list for Europeans, but seems to be quite important for Americans.
This is a strong signal for the US' individual culture, which (contrary to Asian cultures for example) focuses on the individual and achieving things by yourself.

- Physical Traits -

When regarding physical traits, both nations voted in quite a similar way.
They both prioritized health with about half of the total votes.
Next is a tie between weight and attractiveness - 13% of both Europeans and Americans voted for that.
Athletic ability is preferred by Americans (9% compared to 6%), and the last factor is height, which was also more important for Americans.

As for the physical appearance, Europeans were voting for a blonde, blue-eyed girl that's slightly taller than average.
US-Americans preferred black hair and blue eyes in a boy, and also slightly taller than average height.

Now we know how the different people in Europe or the US would genetically engineer their baby.

But what about the different choices amongst men and women? Does a certain gender prefer certain attributes?

Differences between men's and women's choices

- Personality Traits -

The top 3 most voted personality traits were the same for both men and women: intelligence, creativity and kindness.
Around half of the total votes were regarding intelligence, followed by creativity with 15-16% and kindness with 9-11%.
9% of men voted for courage as a personality trait, and 6% for charisma.
The women's votes were tied between charisma and independence, both with 7%.
It's interesting to note that "independence" was only voted by women, and wasn't even mentioned in the men'S voting ranking!
"Courage" on the other hand is an attribute that only men voted for!

- Physical Traits -

When looking at men's and women's votes for physical traits, almost half of all the votes were once again for health. But there's a 9% difference between men's (46%) and women's votes (55%).
Both men and women are almost tied for the next 2 physical traits, 14% of women and 15% of men voted for weight, and 11% of women and 12% of men voted for attractiveness. (Surprising, 1% more male votes for attractiveness!)
1 in 10 men voted for athletic ability - and NO woman did! 0% ! That's such an interesting fact which tells us so much about gender roles and stereotypes.
While 5% of women and 8% of men voted for height, only 5% of women and 0% of men were interested in changing their kids' eye colour.

Women would ideally give their daughters black hair and blue eyes, with an above average height.
Men were in favor of a blond-haired, blue-eyed son, with only 50% of votes for an above average height.

Conclusion

In conclusion, intelligence and health were the most desired by all participants - Americans, Europeans, Women and Men.
When looking at physical traits, it's interesting to note that men and women from both Europe and the US voted in quite a similar way.

The differences were according to the participant's gender, rather than his culture.

Male voters were slightly more concerned with attractiveness and weight than women, and women on the other hand were not interested in athletic ability at all.

As for the character traits, creativity is ranked very highly after intelligence.
While Europeans and men in general consider courage to be important, Americans and women didn't vote for it at all.
"Independence" on the other hand was only voted for by Americans, not Europeans.

These statistics can tell us so much about the different cultures and different genders - and it shows how beauty standards and stereotypes influence us!

Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

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