Twin Studies/ Other Nature-Nurture Crap

The most important thing I learned from my research is that genes determine nothing on their own; all characteristics are determined during development. They interact with the local environment that is in turn affected by the broader environment. I also learned that twin studies, while they do show a correlation, do not show the causes of the appearance of traits. Another important notion: heritability does not mean heredity. Traits that are 100% heritable can still be heavily influenced by the environment. For example, if the child of two alcoholics is raised in an environment without any alcohol, it will not become an alcoholic, no matter how genetically predisposed it is to be one. I also learned about (unfortunately) Mengele, a German "scientist" during World War II. He performed cruel and unusual experiments on concentration camp twins. He learned nothing of scientific value, of course. A more successful scientific investigator of twins was Bouchard; he is the director of the Minnesota Center for Twin and Adoption Research. He has done longitudinal studies of twins, collecting medical and psychological data from them as they aged.