Nature and Nurture

It has been obvious to anyone who has watched the nature verses nurture battles of the last few centuries that the final answer would be that both are important. As time has passed measures have been getting better and better however about which is most important. Today the New York Times had an interesting article that I believe is about the cutting edge of the field. It is actually pretty shocking just how much actually is genetics.

Dr. Segal has found that identical twins were the most alike in their thinking, fraternal twins somewhat less so, and virtual twins strikingly different. When it comes to intelligence, for example, her research has found that only 25 percent of the differences between twins — virtual, fraternal or identical — can be accounted for by their environment, 75 percent by genetics.

Of course there will always be brilliant children born to dim parents, and dim children born to brilliant parents. But it is nice thinking that Makayla has the odds stacked in her favor.