Science To Embrace Man Gene?

I’ve felt at times like a lone voice crying in the wilderness as I post information intended to be helpful to employers in thwarting sexual harassment in the workplace. I refer, of course, to my series of posts about The Man Gene. In an eye-popping article in the New York Times, we’re told by Tara Parker-Pope, author of For Better: The Science of a Good Marriage, that my theory is gaining scientific acceptance, though science still doesn’t quite get it.

Ms. Parker-Pope says there is a gene that makes people more naturally resistant to sexual temptation. Moreover, there are variants of this gene that have the opposite effect. Though acknowledging that the gene is sometimes mistakenly called the “fidelity gene,” she and science miss what’s staring them in the laboratory. There is no fidelity-type gene or any variants of it. There is The Man Gene.

Ms. Parker-Pope strains to make sense of all this, since she must concede that women are far more likely to resist temptation than men. And it’s not nearly as complicated as Ms. Parker-Pope’s article indicates. Women don’t possess The Man Gene.

Ms. Parker-Pope does raise the possibility of a new type of training for employers that may be worth considering. She suggests that men can be trained to resist temptation. (She also says women can be trained, but since women don’t have The Man Gene, they don’t need training.) If she’s right, sexual harassment training needs to be updated. If she’s right, sexual harassment training might finally work.

Ms. Parker-Pope is a bit sketchy on how the training would work, other than saying it would raise feelings of commitment. I have a few specific ideas. I may share these with you, once I’ve developed an iron-clad release that male employees would have to sign before the training begins. Stay tuned.