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"DNA isn’t all that matters but it matters more than everything else put together"
genetic heritability accounts for 50% of the psychological differences between us, from personality to mental abilities. But that leaves 50% that should be accounted for by the environment. However, Plomin argues, research shows that most of that 50% is not attributable to the type of environmental influences that can be planned for or readily affected – ie it’s made up of unpredictable events. And of the environmental influences that can be moderated, much of it, he argues, is really an expression of genetics.
We now know that DNA differences are the major systematic source of psychological differences between us. Environmental effects are important but what we have learned in recent years is that they are mostly random – unsystematic and unstable – which means that we cannot do much about them
Plomin has been waiting 30 years to write Blueprint. It has taken him that long to conduct the research – much of it based on long-term twin studies – necessary to prove his case. But there was another reason for the delay, he admits: “cowardice”. For a long time, he says, it was “dangerous” to study “the genetic origins of differences in people’s behaviour and to write about it in scientific journals”.
“Genetics articles – I mean it was verboten, really, in the 1970s. Everything was environmental. Even schizophrenia was thought to be due to what your mother did in the first few years of life. It seems ridiculous now, but that was the orthodoxy back then. And to mention genetics was just beyond the pale.”
Within the world of science and psychology, he says, there is no longer any problem. But if you move out into other disciplines – he cites education as an example – “genetics is still the devil”. That said, he says brightening, it’s been decades since he’s been called a Nazi.
www.theguardian.com
genetic heritability accounts for 50% of the psychological differences between us, from personality to mental abilities. But that leaves 50% that should be accounted for by the environment. However, Plomin argues, research shows that most of that 50% is not attributable to the type of environmental influences that can be planned for or readily affected – ie it’s made up of unpredictable events. And of the environmental influences that can be moderated, much of it, he argues, is really an expression of genetics.
We now know that DNA differences are the major systematic source of psychological differences between us. Environmental effects are important but what we have learned in recent years is that they are mostly random – unsystematic and unstable – which means that we cannot do much about them
Plomin has been waiting 30 years to write Blueprint. It has taken him that long to conduct the research – much of it based on long-term twin studies – necessary to prove his case. But there was another reason for the delay, he admits: “cowardice”. For a long time, he says, it was “dangerous” to study “the genetic origins of differences in people’s behaviour and to write about it in scientific journals”.
“Genetics articles – I mean it was verboten, really, in the 1970s. Everything was environmental. Even schizophrenia was thought to be due to what your mother did in the first few years of life. It seems ridiculous now, but that was the orthodoxy back then. And to mention genetics was just beyond the pale.”
Within the world of science and psychology, he says, there is no longer any problem. But if you move out into other disciplines – he cites education as an example – “genetics is still the devil”. That said, he says brightening, it’s been decades since he’s been called a Nazi.
So is it nature not nurture after all?
In a controversial new book Robert Plomin argues that genes largely shape our personalities and that the science is now too compelling to ignore
