is intelligence genetic?

[Ron Burgundy]

do u guys think intelligence is mostly genetic?

[Velaniz]

Only to a degree. I think people underestimate the effect upbringing can have on what we refer to as 'intelligence'.

Also, welcome back <3.

[Deleted]

To some degree I guess, environment and stimulation probably affects it more?

[Deleted]

Not mostly.

[theWocky]

do u guys think intelligence is mostly genetic?

To a certain degree, yes. Environment and other factors play a major role.

Also, you need to take into consideration that some people have better skills than others, so if someone is exceptionally good in one field (like a savant), are they necessarily more intelligent?

[Molestron]

Yes. I don't believe that it's passed down from the parents, but I believe that it's part of that RNG that happens at conception which also decides if you will have have big ears.
Some people's neural "wiring" is just better than others'.

Please note that Intelligence doesn't necesarily refer to one being a nerd. A savant who won the Nobel prize for an invention could starve to death in a jungle as opposed to an average joe who would survive.

[God8010]

Until I meet the child born knowing something another didn't feed him, I'd say no. Genetics might build the machine but the data is in the real world and not the womb.

[Tailswipe]

It seems perfectly possible that genes could increase the likelihood of being born mentally handicapped but I have no proof so I can't say for sure.

[Dendrek]

Genes make the machine and determine its maximum efficiency and capacity. Upkeep and programming determine how well it actually runs.

[Yvaelle]

Yes, but upbringing matters a lot - this is super common for much of, if not most, genetic expression.

Skin colour is a good visible parallel - it is very often coordinated with the skin colour of your parents, but if a brown person spends all their life outdoors in the equatorial sun - their skin can become as "black" or blacker than most "black" people. It matters what colour their parents' skin was, but it also matters a lot on how they spend their life. Another good example is physical fitness - generally speaking - world-class athletes are often the children of very fit people, but it also (obviously) matters how they grow up, and what they do with their life.

Intelligent parents generally give birth to intelligent kids. Experiments with identical twins separated at birth have suggested a strong correlation with their intelligence, when tested years later - despite sometimes vastly different upbringings (I believe it's an 80% correlation, if I'm remembering correctly). With that said, obviously upbringing plays a significant role, and it is likely higher than 20% missing from that correlation - since it's unlikely that any one set of twins in the study represented both the best possible upbringing and the worst.

When you consider that most of them probably had decent or at least non-terrible upbringings (on average), that means we're only seeing the top of the bell curve for the 'nurture' influence. It's probably not unreasonable to suggest that nature vs. nurture, as far as intelligence is concerned - is probably close to 50:50.

[Deleted]

To a small degree yes, but environmental factors, upbringing, education, socio-economic factors and overall parenting plays a much greater role that genes. A guy at MENSA society back in UNI was the only son of very ordinary people who never went to university, in fact his father was semi literate. However his parents alway encouraged his passion for science and invested in his education and personal development a LOT! He left with a 1st class degree and went on to do his Phd in Nanotechnology from Ireland.

Just saying

[Raphtheone]

Genetics determine the ceiling, and there's no way around it. It's the same with looks, or muscle tone, or how big your butt is. Or how tall you are. Wether intelligence is completely hereditary or not is another discussion, but smart people usually get smart children. They can also get retarded children (no offense intended), while extremely dumb people can get smart children, so I personally don't think it's completely hereditary, there seems to be a very influential RNG component involved.

Environment, upbringing and the likes are sort of semi-permanent, takes a long while to alter their influences, while things like head aches or emotional turmoil like depression or bad breakups etc all affect it temporarily, like a short term buff/debuff in WoW. All these influence the actual, current level of intelligence.

Until I meet the child born knowing something another didn't feed him, I'd say no. Genetics might build the machine but the data is in the real world and not the womb.

You're talking about knowledge, not intelligence. Granted, there are different types of smart, but knowledge and intelligence are like hard drive and CPU.

[Deleted]

If you have intelligent parents you are increasing more likely to end up an intelligent person, however that doesn't necessarily has to do with genetics.

[Deleted]

If you have intelligent parents you are increasing more likely to end up an intelligent person, however that doesn't necessarily has to do with genetics.

kinda agree on this

my mom had (now dead) 89 in IQ, i got 126.. so quite big difference there

but it can be i got 126 in IQ, but i dont see my self as a smart person anyway, its just a number for me.

[ro9ue]

I believe the scientific answer is: Probably to an extent.

[Deleted]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritability_of_IQ

Yes. Most of it.


You can also see that genetics play a Huge role by comparing the intelligence quotients of different races.
Here is a really objective documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19l3L-ldLas

Also in the video, at 13:51 it says that IQ is arround 70% hereditary.

[Xeones]

Yes, I don't think the intelligence of the parents have a whole lot to do with it... but most of what makes a person intelligence has to do with their ability to store information and how they use it and beyond information how easily they can just percieve things. I don't see how these things can be nutured to any real and meaningful extent.

[Catta]

Ofcourse it is.

But obviously there are other factors as well.

[felcommander]

For all intents and purposes this comes down to nature vs. nurture so if your looking for something factual your going to be disappointed as this debated has raged on since the founding of developmental psychology.

[Deleted]

To a small degree yes, but environmental factors, upbringing, education, socio-economic factors and overall parenting plays a much greater role that genes. A guy at MENSA society back in UNI was the only son of very ordinary people who never went to university, in fact his father was semi literate. However his parents alway encouraged his passion for science and invested in his education and personal development a LOT! He left with a 1st class degree and went on to do his Phd in Nanotechnology from Ireland.

Just saying

I beg to differ. I actually think it's the other way around. The case you're describing is the exception, not the rule.
I think intelligence is mostly genetic, but also partially due to other factors.