Nature versus nurture
Concept · Psychology, stage 1: Learn the vocabulary
The nature-nurture question asks how much of the variation between people comes from inherited differences and how much from environment and experience. Stated as a versus, it is a bad question, and psychologists have largely abandoned it in that form: every trait requires both, so the answerable version is about the sources of variation in a particular population at a particular time, not about a single person. Twin and adoption studies are the standard method, comparing identical twins, fraternal twins, and adopted siblings to estimate heritability. Heritability is the most misread statistic in psychology: it is a population figure that says nothing about an individual, and it can change when the environment changes, so a high heritability does not mean a trait is fixed.
Why it matters
Almost every popular claim about genes and behaviour misreads heritability in the same way, and knowing what the number actually refers to inoculates you against most of them.
Part of
Nature versus nurture in the glossary
Sources
- Nature versus nurture Wikipedia
- Heritability Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophySets out precisely what the statistic does and does not license, which is where most popular claims fail.
- Twin study Wikipedia
