Do you really get your intelligence from your mother?
UPDATE 8/30 2018: Do you really get your intelligence from your mother? While this claim became a popular discussion topic at dinner tables across the country in 2017, both and are saying not so fast.
The first issue is the blog where the concept originated. Psychology Spot misrepresented what qualified as "new" information. Not only are the studies it cited decades old, but Psychology Spot used 14 studies to put together the claim, Emily Willingham of Forbes points out.
Second, the way the science was explained in Psychology Spot's original blog post was not as simple as it seemed. To summarize the specifics, which you can read about more in Forbes' or Snopes' de-bunking stories, there is not enough scientific evidence to conclude where intelligence comes from, genetically. The blog post, while popular, greatly oversimplified the complicated science of genetics and misrepresented what the studies were actually saying.
While we do get at least one X chromosomes from our mothers, we cannot pinpoint intelligence on it exactly. "We do not have a detailed understanding of which specific genes relate to intelligence," wrote Snopes.
Lastly, the blog post did not discuss the vital relationship between one's genetics and their environment, which scientists have maintained is inherently .
ORIGINAL 12/22/2017: featured on the blog Psychology Spot says people are born with conditioned genes that work differently depending on whether they're from your mother or father — and when it comes to your , those genes are from mother dearest.
Even though people used to believe your smarts were from your father and mother, that's not the case. You see, intelligence genes are located on chromosome X and since women carry two X chromosomes, that means children are twice as likely to get their intelligence from mom.
Even if your father passes off a few of his intelligence genes to you, chances are they won't have an impact on your brain, since they only work if they come from your mother. "If that same gene is inherited from the father, it is deactivated," reports the study in . "Obviously, other genes work the opposite, are activated only if they come from the father."
Want even more proof? The Medical Research Council Social and Public Health Sciences Unit in the United States did a study on mothers back in 1994 and interviewed 12,686 young people between the ages of 14 and 22. Their questions focused on the children's IQ, race, education and socio-economic status. The best predictor of intelligence? The IQ of their mothers.
[ht/ ]