One final implication of our findings is noteworthy. When we think about diseases in psychiatry, we often think not only about high heritability but also about low levels of personal responsibility and blame-worthiness. By contrast, when we consider behavioral disorders (especially substance use disorders), we sometimes think not only of reduced genetic influences, but also of higher levels of personal responsibility and blame-worthiness. After all, since behavior is under at least partial voluntary control, it seems natural to assume that a behavioral disorder is “the patient’s fault.” Indirectly, our findings challenge this assumption. Given the apparent lack of a consistent relationship between heritability and disease versus disturbed behavior, should we also re-examine our conception about the relationship between disease and disturbed behavior on the one hand and moral responsibility and blame-worthiness on the other? Our results emphasize the important distinction between stigmatizing destructive behaviors, in a treatment context, and stigmatizing patients in a social (especially medical) context. Unfortunately, persons with behavioral disorders like alcoholism are stigmatized, and not just by the general public (Farrell and Lewis, 1990, Schomerus et al.,
