Hereditary Intelligence

I was reading a chapter about genes recently in my psychology book, and they talked about intelligence being hereditary in most cases. What do you think? Do you think some people are born naturally smart because their parents were? Some people naturally dumb? Or is it all because of the upbringings? Were they raised to be the way they are, or given intelligence/ignorance at birth?

It's both.

Brain configurations, I suppose you can call them, can be hereditary. Certain parts of the brain may function better or worse depending on genetics. That's basically the extent of it.

How intelligent a person is still mostly relies on what they learn over the course of life, and also how you define intelligence. Someone may be born with the ability to memorize things very well but might have no common sense, while someone with plenty of common sense might have trouble memorizing things. Common sense is gained during life, while the part of the brain that memorizes things could be made more or less efficient by genetics (among other things).

« Last edited by dark_wolf_33 on Mar 20th 2012 »

Oh Path...

I think it has less to do with genes, and more to do with the will to learn. :x

It may be hereditary. But if you compared who somebody is just naturally smart with a crap attitude to learning and somebody who isn't naturally smart but has an excellent attitude to to learning, the latter will probably be more successful.

Well, at least you'd hope so anyway. But tbh I'm the first somewhat so I can't say much..

It's a mixture of both, I would think. A person may not be born with intelligence, but if they work hard and commit themselves to learning I think they would be just as smart or smarter than someone who is just naturally intelligent.

Oh it's like the nature vs nurture thing we discussed in class.


It's a mix of both, so I believe. Depending on the environment surrounding the child as they grow up, they will pick up habits.
EI: If a child is born in a good family, chances are they will be smarter. If one is in a bad surrounding, chances are they will pick up bad habits.


It is also influence by the person's will to learn as well.

Vicar said:

I was reading a chapter about genes recently in my psychology book, and they talked about intelligence being hereditary in most cases. What do you think? Do you think some people are born naturally smart because their parents were? Some people naturally dumb? Or is it all because of the upbringings? Were they raised to be the way they are, or given intelligence/ignorance at birth?

Its difficult to untangle the causality of intelligence, chances are if both your parents are intelligent they are likely to bring you up in an 'intelligent' way since they (in general) will know more about the sort of environment to create for that. A simple example, breast fed babies are associated with a higher IQ than those that are bottle fed, if your parents are intelligent they may be more likely to know about these benefits and persevere longer with it etc. So a child brought up by intelligent parents may be more likely to have a better upbringing as well, so its difficult to tell if it is purely down to genes. There must be some twin studies on the issue, I'll have to have a look.

I believe it to be a mixture of both nature and nurture, it certainly explains why some children of intelligent people are as thick as 2 short planks and some of our greatest minds have come from relatively humble origins.

I think it can be either way. Some people can just be born Smart or Stupid depending on their parent's intelligence, if they are smart their offspring should, in most cases, be smart as well, there can also be people who are born from parents who are intellectually challenged, but be smarter than most of the people they know. On the other hand, if you prefer to see it this way, some people are born into families where everyone has worked hard and done good in school, so it's just expected of them. They grow to be smart because of how they were raised.

It can go either way in my opinion.

I feel that it's difficult to measure intelligence, and a person's intellect shouldn't be measured purely based on their academic standing. I can use myself as a minor example - I'm as smart as anyone in my History group in University, but I don't get particularly high marks because it's not the way I'm comfortably learning.

A major example? Take a redneck who lives out in the wilds of the Deep South in the US. Dropped out of school at age 12. Probably knows far more about stomping around the woods and hunting crocodiles, and whatnot, than a University graduate.

In my opinion, there are many different kinds of intelligence. Many different types. If hereditary intelligence does exist, it is not for one type of intelligence, it applies to all, which is my personal opinion on the matter. However, our experiences in life also shape our own personal intelligence, regardless of what kind of intelligence that is.

Intelligence is something that cannot be measured .

I measure intelligence by hwo quickly you are able to grasp a concept. (In comparison to the mean time taken to learn it).

The method is inherantly flawed, but it does the job well enough for academia related subjects.

Intelligence can't really be categorized, intelligent can be different for everyone, so take a world class thief, he probably isn't very intelligent when it comes to maths and geography, but when it comes to breaking in to houses, he's very intelligent.

Intelligence can be accomplished with hard work, you are not born intelligent, you might be born bright, but the are differences. You might think Isaac Newton is intelligent, but to a criminal, he just explained that something falls.....boooring. So intelligence varies from individual to individual, you are good at somethings, you aren't at others.

^Basically what I said three posts ago.

oops, sorry bout that :/

Don't apologise.
You were stating your opinion on the thing.
Just because it's the same as someone else's doesn't mean you shouldn't say it.

Thanks Jay ^_^ and, your right, as always.

As always? xD
Nah. I'm far from -always- right. Bahaha.

Yeah, no ones always right ('cept Confucius)

Confucius say: No one is always right.


If he's always right... isn't that a paradox?