What determines our behavior: genes or environment?

Life is like a card game. The hand you are dealt represents determinism; the way you play is free will. – Jawaharlal Nehru, to form Prime Minister of India.

Much has been written and debated about what determines the behavior of a person, genes or the environment? Are our genes responsible for what we do in our day to day? Or does the environment play a dominant role in shaping our behavior? This “nature-nurture” theory is a perennial topic of discussion.

The basic unit of heredity in an organism is its gene. Genes are responsible for passing genetic traits to the next generation. The coding sequence of the genes decides what the gene does to build and maintain the cells of an organism, while the non-coding sequence decides when the gene is active.

The theory of nature

Natural Theory scientists think that people behave the way they do because of their genetic predisposition. Physical qualities such as eye, hair, or skin color, body structure, diseases, and characteristics such as interest, personality, temperament, and sexual habits are also encoded in genes. Human behavior is controlled less by the environment of free will and more by the genes they carry. Whatever the incidents that occur and the traits that are practiced generation after generation are imprinted in the genes and are passed on to a certain extent to the next generation.

The parenting theory

Some scientists conclude that genetic tendencies exist, but ultimately do not matter because environmental factors and their upbringing are what determine people’s behavior. A gene may increase inclination toward a particular behavior, but it doesn’t make people do things unless a favorable environment is provided. If people are provided with an environment that resists their genetic tendencies, they are more likely to behave in accordance with their upbringing.

Nature or nurture?

Topics such as criminal behavior, infidelity, sexual preferences have been attributed by nature theorists to genes.

“We are survival machines,” writes Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene, “robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes.” And “…genes spread in the gene pool by jumping from body to body via sperm or egg…”

If we believe this and people are no longer responsible for their actions, how will society be possible? On the other hand, can we justify criminal behavior simply by saying that increased summer heat or solar flares lead to increasing levels of assault and rape, as some psychologists claim?

It is believed that as we move into higher orders in species such as mammals, instincts play a lesser role and better environmental and behavioral adaptability in the ongoing process of survival. Human beings have minimal instincts. On the other hand, we have a great influence from our environment and the environment substantially determines our behavior.

A study from the University of Minnesota on the behavior of identical twins raised in different homes states that approximately seventy percent of the variation in IQ is due to genes. Others believe that the isolation of the twins could never be complete, as they would have some social or cultural commonality and communication in their environment in this rapidly becoming socially and culturally uniform world.

There is increasing evidence of the interactions between nature and nurture. Genes by themselves do not ensure that a particular trait will prevail. Genes are said to be turned on or off by environmental interaction with our brain, so yoga and meditation are said to be able to control disease and even control or reverse some physical processes in the body.

We cannot, with the present evidence before us, conclude one way or the other about nature vs. nurture the discussion. We have to try to understand the interactions between the two. There are complex relationships between genes, proteins, hormones, food, and our experiences, and only further research in the future will reveal the truth.

In the context of the human quest for development and success, we cannot base our future on the assumption that genes have an important role to play and our efforts will do little. Life coaches and business coaches who are more in favor of nurture theory believe that the events the individual goes through in her life shape her perceptions, lifestyle, personality, and habits. . His position is that if free will and strong determination are exercised, people are sure to control their genes and nurture their personality towards happiness, self-confidence and success.

All the best,

natalie dee

Life Coach and Business Coach in London