It's more complicated ... it's "multifactorial". To expand on it, I'll quote from a short review of 'Behave', by the inimitable Robert Sapolsky, that I wrote o

It's more complicated ... it's "multifactorial". To expand on it, I'll quote from a short review of 'Behave', by the inimitable Robert Sapolsky, that I wrote on a previous thread[1]: The most important idea in the book: "when you explain a behaviour with one of the various disciplines [biology, psychology, culture, et al], you are implicitly invoking all the disciplines [...] A 'neurobiological' or 'genetic' or 'developmental' explanation for a behaviour is just a shorthand for temporarily approaching the whole multifactorial arc from a particular perspective." Six hundred pages into the book, Sapolsky restates the central thesis: the biology of human behaviours that interest us, in all cases, is "multifactorial". What does it mean? There's a dizzying array of factors that influence our behaviour; too many enumerate, but a quick few: blood glucose levels; the socio-economic status of your family of birth; sleep quality and quantity; prenatal environment; stress and glucocorticoid [a key stress-signaller] levels; if you live in an individualist or a collectivist culture, and so on. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25559890 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25559890