A misleading case of “trauma inherited across generations”

Here we have a new paper in Nature Scientific Reports, accompanied by a news piece in Science, that sends a misleading message to the public, both about “inheritance of trauma” and the effects of epigenetic changes.  Both pieces are free to access; click on the first headline below to go to the news piece, and […]

A misleading case of “trauma inherited across generations”

Harris’ Major Malfunction

Judith Harris’ The Nurture Assumption was a huge influence on me, and the top inspiration for my Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids. Her book’s first main lesson is that family resemblance, defined in the broadest possible way to include physical, psychological, and social outcomes, is mostly driven by genetics rather than upbringing. Her book’s…

Harris’ Major Malfunction

The same gene variants that predispose to homosexuality boost mating success in heterosexual carriers by making them more attractive

More behavioural genetics

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Some of it is in the genes

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More on who is winning the battle of the sexes

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Source: Stereotypes can hold boys back in school, too via @SteveStuWill

Speaking of the equality of the sexes

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Source: David Meyer.

James Heckman on improving schools @greencatherine @dbseymour @ThomasHaig @PPTAWeb

Source:  James J. Heckman The American Family in Black and White: A Post-Racial Strategy for Improving Skills to Promote Equality, 2011.

Source: Promoting Social Mobility | Boston Review

The three laws of behavioural genetics

 

HT: Eric Turkheimer

Why Economists and Parents Need to Discover Behavioral Genetics | Bryan Caplan

via Why Economists and Parents Need to Discover Behavioral Genetics | Psychology Today.

Why schools can’t teach character – Toby Young

…character traits are inherited, not taught.

I’m not talking about moral qualities, such as honesty, compassion and altruism. It may be that these can be cultivated.

I mean performance-enhancing virtues, like stick-to-it-ness and the ability to bounce back from defeat, what exponents of character education call ‘grit’.

There’s a growing body of evidence that these traits are largely hereditable, that is, encoded in our DNA. If you exhibit any of these qualities, it’s overwhelmingly likely that your parents did, too.

And insofar as a child’s upbringing has any impact on the emergence of these qualities, it’s the peers they associate with during adolescence that matter, not their teachers.

via spectator.co.uk/toby-young-status-anxiety

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