Nature or Nurture?

 Nature or Nurture - which plays the biggest

 role in who you are?


Nature v/s nurture has been a point of debate for several ages and has created uncountable controversies. The topic of discussion today is the same.

It is believed that intelligence can be viewed best as the product of complex interaction within nature and the environment. Heredity is something that- sets a range within which an individual develops.

I know we have all heard "iske toh khoon mai hai"? at least once in our life. It is still believed that the daughter or son of a doctor is bound to be a doctor. Well, why not actually go into the insight of this claim.

The evidence for hereditary influences on intelligence came mainly from studies on twins and adopted children.

Twin studies:

The intelligence of identical twins reared together correlates almost 0.90.

 Twins separated early in childhood also show considerable similarity in their intellectual, personality, and behavioral characteristics.

 The intelligence of identical twins reared in different environments correlate to 0.72

 Those fraternal twins reared together correlates almost 0.60

 reared sibling correlate about 0.50

 While siblings reared apart correlates about 0.25.

Studies of adopted children:

 which shows that the intelligence of children is more similar to their biological rather than adoptive parents.

Well, after reading this, please do not start believing that your intelligence is all dependent on your parents.


To begin with nurture, what is it? According to the Collins dictionary, nurture is care given to someone while they are growing and developing. 

Let me ask you a question, are children born as leaders, singers, politicians, dancers? No, obviously. 

Our external environments affect how we behave and think throughout our lives. As per research, children observe and learn the behavior of models and later imitate it. A model can either be their parents or friends.

We tend to develop phobia and fear because we are exposed to certain stimuli associated with a negative feeling. This generates an experience that is important in molding a person. 

Concerning the role of the environment, studies have reported that as children grow in age, their intelligence level tends to move closer to that of their adoptive parents.

To add more, ‘Learned helplessness’ is also due to nurture. For example, when a person endures an unpleasant situation, they perceive the unpleasantness to be inescapable and ultimately cease to resist any change. This theory is the basis of the attributional style. People experiencing this helplessness are due to their entire life experiences fail them to develop trust or distrust in the environment. 


To conclude, nature and nurture go hand in hand, but our empathy, tolerance, and anger are governed more by hereditary. According to research, 70% is the role hereditary while 30% is the role of environmental. Next time your children are angry, you better know where that is coming from.😂😂

Our nature and nurture have equal importance in how we behave but what makes us different is our individual minds causing individual differences among us.

Ishita Sharma and Kritika Chhetri

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