Nature vs. Nurture

For those who always resign and blame 'human nature' whether it is the cause of wars, violence or obscene inequality and 'greed'.

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A 2015 comprehensive meta-analysis of more than 2,500 twin studies between 1958 and 2012, covering almost 18,000 complex human traits, found (unsurprisingly) that identical twins are typically more similar than fraternal twins. But their personalities are certainly not identical.

For the 568 traits that were descriptions of temperament or personality, the study found that 47% of differences could be attributed to genetic differences. The remaining portion, it concluded, must be accounted for by environmental influences. Other studies seem to support this – only around 40-50% of personality differences are genetic.

But even when combining a range of different DNA variants, the effects on personality remain smaller than anticipated. Heritability estimates currently span from 9% to 18% for Big Five personality traits, far below the 40% suggested by twin studies. What explains this "missing heritability"?

If it's possible that "nature" contributes less than we once thought, it might be tempting to attribute more of our personality to "nurture": the circumstances we grew up in, the people who surround us, the life events that shape our unique histories. It turns out, though, that understanding how our environment shapes our personality is just as complex.

Genetic and environmental impacts also interact in ways we haven't yet fully grasped. For one, the environment appears to be able to activate or switch off certain genetic predispositions.

Many caveats and unknowns remain, even for the most studied areas of behavioural genetics such as the connections between violence and the so-called warrior gene. Studies indicate that in some groups of males, both the presence of certain moderator genes and certain environmental risk factors (such as an abusive upbringing) could increase the potential for violent behaviour in certain scenarios. But the results are far from clear cut.

How much of our personalities are determined at birth?

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The Qarmatians (Al-Qaramita)

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Capitalism

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Putting a Racist in Their Place

"Egypt is no longer the heart of the Arab world"

US

Written in June: The candidate who emerged from this jumble of discontent was the man who promised to do the least. His party is now preparing to give us a national election that will be little more than a referendum on the hated Donald Trump. Finally we have a climate in which the American public would unquestionably choose dramatic change were it offered to them, and the party of change has contrived to ensure that it will not be offered. Instead our choice is between two elderly and conservative white men, both with a history of stretching the truth, both with sexual harassment accusations hanging over them, and neither representing any possibility of energetic democratic reform. The old order has been miraculously rescued once again. Such is the climate of opinion in America that, with the right leader, remarkable things would be possible. Instead we are presented with Joe Biden, an affable DC veteran with a hand in many of the defining disasters of the last 30 years: worker-c...

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