Photo Gallery Nature vs. Nurture
New studies have found that environment has at least as great an impact on IQ as genetics. Researchers in recent years have scaled back their estimates of the influence genetics plays in intelligence differences. Psychologist Richard Nisbett says that if you take social differences into account, you would find "50 percent to be the maximum contribution to genetics."
The findings will undoubtedly please those parents who already send their children to good schools, drive them to violin lessons in the afternoon, and then drag them around museums at the weekend. "So you haven't wasted your time, money and patience on your children after all," Nisbett says.
The new findings show that an unexpectedly large proportion of a child's intelligence is left for parents, teachers and educators to shape.
The notions of "chess genius" or "math genius" are mere metaphors that don't have any biological basis whatsoever.
It has been observed that children in several Asian countries are far better at calculating than their peers in the West. But that has nothing to do with genetics -- and everything to do with attitudes.
