How Much Do Parents Matter?
That depends on how wealthy you are:
Home environment accounted for approximately 80% of the individual variance in mental ability among poor 2-year-olds. The effect of genetics was negligible. The opposite pattern appeared in 2-year-olds from wealthy households. For these kids, genetics primarily determined performance, accounting for nearly 50% of all variation in mental ability.
Children from wealthy households get all the advantages that money can buy, from music lessons to SAT tutors. Although parents might fret over the details of such advantages—is it better to play the piano or the violin?—these details are mostly insignificant, subject to the law of diminishing returns. As the science blogger Razib Kahn notes, “When you remove the environmental variance, the genetic variance remains.”
Actually this makes a certain amount of sense, but it is surprising when you first read the result.
Agree. Where there are no environmental deprivations, outcomes are likely to reflect genetic factors.
The book The Bell Curve predicted a widening of the class structure based on the argument that intelligent people could segment the gene pool by only marrying people of similar backgrounds. The new book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom takes the concept a giant leap forward by combining both genetics and aggressive parenting.
This describes how people with good genetic backgrounds can prevail despite lowly beginnings, while people with less robust genetic backgrounds need nurturing.
Careful parenting, the best genetics, the most wealth — none of it makes a difference if you let your kids chew on lead paint chips.
Matt Ridley wrote a really great book on the subject called, “The Agile Gene.”
One of the best lines goes something like this:
“In a true meritocratic society, where nurture does not matter, genetic differences will create wide disparities in skill level and talent.”
I had never thought about it that way. In truth, it’s a little frightening, since you have the least amount of power over your genetic predispositions. At least we have some control over our environment.