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Were Albert Einstein and Leonardo da Vinci born brilliant or did they acquire their intelligence through effort? No one knows for sure, but telling people the latter – that hard work trumps genes – causes instant changes in the brain and may make them more willing to strive for success, indicates a new study from Michigan State University.
The findings suggest the human brain is more receptive to the message that intelligence comes from the environment, regardless of whether it’s true. And this simple message, said lead investigator Hans Schroder, may ultimately prompt us to work harder.
http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2014/nature-or-nurture-its-all-about-the-message/
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Now KEN and BARBIE are PERMANENTLY ADDICTED to MIND-ALTERING DRUGS ...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bradley13 on Monday September 08 2014, @08:41AM
It seems to me (not a biologist, but interested in the stuff) that this has already been thoroughly settled. Genetics determines your potential. To what degree you achieve your potential (environment/nurture) is a separate and almost completely independent question.
If Einstein had been born on the plains of Mongolia, he might have been the best herd-counter on the plains, but he wouldn't have discovered relativity. Meanwhile, how many other people were in same environment as Einstein, but without his potential, and hence didn't discover relativity?
Insert here all manner of other examples, like marathon runners, musicians, etc.
For anyone who didn't read TFA, it comes down to this: encourage each and every person to achieve all that they can. Guess what, this encouragement will cause them to do better, to realize more of their potential. This is surely unsurprising and obvious? Using nature-vs-nurture as the means for framing that encouragement was gratuitous and unnecessary.
People keep trotting out the "nature-vs-nurture" argument as if there is some sort of uncertainty. There isn't. This is like religious nutcases trotting out creationism: denial of a reality that doesn't meet with their personal approval.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Monday September 08 2014, @05:40PM
if you want to see the active matching of genetic potential to effective deployment just look at professional sports!
The education system is keyed to produce factory workers (a very good TED talk highlighted this).
Humanity was very lucky that the combination of education was around to produce Einsteins breakthrough. It took 4 centuries from Newton...