Paige Harden

Kathryn Paige Harden is an American psychologist and behavior geneticist. She is Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, where she is also the leader of the Developmental Behavior Genetics lab and the co-director of the Texas Twin Project. She is also a Faculty Research Associate at the University of Texas at Austin's Population Research Center and a Jacobs Foundation research fellow.
Her research has focused on using genetic data to understand individual differences in child and adolescent development. She has published papers on the psychological consequences of early puberty and early age at first sexual intercourse, on delinquency and antisocial behavior, and on intelligence and academic achievement.
She was a recipient of the American Psychological Association's Award for Distinguished Scientific Early Career Contributions to Psychology in 2017, in honor of her research on "how to integrate genetic knowledge with the classical clinical and developmental insights into human behavior." In an editorial in the "New York Times", Harden argued that genetic research on human individual differences is compatible with egalitarian social goals.
In September 2021, Harden will publish the book "The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality".