Nature via Nurture by Matt Ridley

BOOK REVIEWS BY BINOD

BINOD’S RATING: 7/10

My top 25 insights from this book (direct quotes):

1.     Genes can be consequence as well as cause.

2.     It’s easier to live a normal life in the modern world less with poor systemizing skills than poor empathizing skills.

3.     A Cambridge researcher filmed 29 girls and 41 boys at 12 months old and analyses how often the baby looked at the mother’s face. As expected, girls made far more eye contact. Among the boys, the higher the testosterone level the less eye contact made by the baby.

4.     In a true meritocracy, where all have equal opportunity and equal training, the best athletes will be the ones with the best genes. In the opposite kind of society, with the privileged few, background and opportunity will determine who wins the race.

5.     Paradoxically, the more equal we make society, the more genes will matter.

6.     Families do matter for personality. But so long as a child does have a family to grow up within, it doesn’t terribly matter whether the family is big or small, rich or poor.

7.     Criminality is pretty highly heritable. Why? Not because there are specific criminality genes but because there are specific personalities who get into trouble with the law and those personalities are heritable

8.     Unlike personality, intelligence does seem to receive a strong influence from the family. IQ is approx. 50% genetic, 25% influenced by the shared environment and 25% influenced by environmental factors unique to the individual.

9.     Intelligence stands out from personality as being much more susceptible to family influence.

10.The older you grow, the less your family background predicts your IQ and the better your genes predict it.

11.Genes are likely to be affecting appetite more than aptitude. They don’t make you more intelligent; they make you more likely to enjoy learning. Because you enjoy it you spend more time doing it and you grow cleverer.

12.Nature can only act via nurture. It can only act by nudging people to seek out environmental influences that will fulfill their appetites.

13.Average IQ scores are rising steadily at the rate of 5 points per decade. This shows that the environment does influence IQ.

14.The ability to learn language is subject to a critical period that ends at puberty.

15.Human beings can uniquely place themselves in others mental shoes. Apes never do this.

16.Human nature never progressed but was doomed to repeat the same atavisms in each generation. There is a universal human nature. Technology and tradition merely refract this nature into local culture: bow ties and violins in one place, ornaments and tribal dancing in another.

17.Genes are conditional. They’re exquisitely good at if-then logic: if a certain environment, then develop in a certain way.

18.The original genetic differences in talent may be very slight indeed. Practice has done the rest.

19.As Galton put it, ‘I’ve been surprised at finding how often insanity has appeared among the near relatives of exceptionally able men’. This eccentricity may even help them to great success. Rational thought imposes a limit on a person’s concept of his relation to the cosmos.

20.People are commonly afraid of spiders, the dark, heights, deep water, small spaces and thunder.  All of these were a threat to Stone Age people, whereas the much greater threats of modern life- cars, guns, skis- simply don’t induce such phobias. The human brain is prewired to learn fears that were of relevance on the Stone Age.

21.Every job interview is about genetic discrimination. Even if the interviewer correctly ignores race, sex, disability etc. and discriminates on the basis of ability alone she is still discriminating. Besides, the other point of the interview is to take into account personality; personality is even more heritable than intelligence.

22.A meritocracy is not a fair place. A society stratified by intelligence center is also unfair because the clever can buy comforts and privileges.

23.Racism can be easily defeated. On the other hand, sexism is a harder nut to crack because people will continue to stereotype men as men and women as women

24.The decision to do something is made by your brain before you’re aware of it.

25.Nature vs nurture is dead. Long live nature via nurture.

Its deep, fascinating, persuasive and insightful and all backed by cutting edge research. One big step in getting to know ourselves.