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Nature vs nurture, an age old topic of conjecture. The obvious (and prevailing) perspective is both. Intellectual and psychological traits have some genetic p

Nature vs nurture, an age old topic of conjecture. The obvious (and prevailing) perspective is both. Intellectual and psychological traits have some genetic predisposition, yet we should never discount the general adaptability of all minds. Want science proofs? Consider how twins who grow up apart are strikingly similar, and consider how these examples might diverge from your own (random) characteristics.

speedylight 4y ago
It’s funny you mention twins because while I was writing this post I also wanted to pose the question that if a pair of identical twins were raised the exact same way (exact enough that it’s more of a far fetched hypothetical than any sort of realistic scenario) would they then be the exact same person given that they shared not only the same life experiences and therefore memories, but also the stimuli they shared while in the womb from factors like changes in hormone levels, stress, nutrition, smoking/alcohol/drugs use, etc which all affect development as pointed out by the other comments. It’s an interesting question to think about but I think any answer is going to have a considerable degree of speculation since we don’t fully understand how the brain works and why it’s the way it is.
- inphovore 4y ago
  Exact doesn’t exist. What is meaningful is that twins raised far apart by random parents have striking similarities. Googling “twins raised apart” provides a handful of stories. One of the more interesting is the story of the Korean twins having a “huge IQ difference”, the lower experienced less stability in her upbringing. Otherwise their personalities were the same. This is interesting as twins raised together often have different personalities, probably drawn from their (possibly subconscious) intentions not to be too similar.
  - mindcrime 4y ago
    Agree with everything you say. That said, just to add some context, and for anybody who might not be aware... even "identical" twins aren't actually strictly identical. That probably goes without saying for the most part, but the amount of differences that can be found in monozygotic (identical) twins turns out be somewhat surprising. See: https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/general-science/identical-twins-are-not-identical https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/general-science/identical-...

speedylight 4y ago

It’s funny you mention twins because while I was writing this post I also wanted to pose the question that if a pair of identical twins were raised the exact same way (exact enough that it’s more of a far fetched hypothetical than any sort of realistic scenario) would they then be the exact same person given that they shared not only the same life experiences and therefore memories, but also the stimuli they shared while in the womb from factors like changes in hormone levels, stress, nutrition, smoking/alcohol/drugs use, etc which all affect development as pointed out by the other comments. It’s an interesting question to think about but I think any answer is going to have a considerable degree of speculation since we don’t fully understand how the brain works and why it’s the way it is.

inphovore 4y ago
Exact doesn’t exist. What is meaningful is that twins raised far apart by random parents have striking similarities. Googling “twins raised apart” provides a handful of stories. One of the more interesting is the story of the Korean twins having a “huge IQ difference”, the lower experienced less stability in her upbringing. Otherwise their personalities were the same. This is interesting as twins raised together often have different personalities, probably drawn from their (possibly subconscious) intentions not to be too similar.
- mindcrime 4y ago
  Agree with everything you say. That said, just to add some context, and for anybody who might not be aware... even "identical" twins aren't actually strictly identical. That probably goes without saying for the most part, but the amount of differences that can be found in monozygotic (identical) twins turns out be somewhat surprising. See: https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/general-science/identical-twins-are-not-identical https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/general-science/identical-...