IT is the age-old debate – nature or nurture?
Now research from Edinburgh University has found that a person's genes, and not their upbringing or surroundings, are the key to determining how successful they will become.
A study of more than 800 sets of twins found genes play a greater role than their environment in forming characteristics such as self-control and decision-making ability as well as how sociable a person is.
The research team found that identical twins, whose DNA is exactly the same, were twice as likely to share traits compared with non-identical twins.
Psychologists say the findings are significant because the stronger the genetic link, the more likely it is that these character traits are carried through a family.
Professor Timothy Bates, of the University of Edinburgh's School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, said: "Ever since the ancient Greeks, people have debated the nature of a good life and the nature of a virtuous life. Why do some people seem to manage their lives, have good relationships and cooperate to achieve their goals while others do not?
"Previously, the role of family and the environment around the home often dominated people's ideas about what affected psychological well-being.
"However, this work highlights a much more powerful influence from genetics."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article