00:00:00
Can a person be born smart?
00:00:03
We often hear about people who seem naturally talented.
00:00:08
People who from childhood, showed skills and intelligence
00:00:11
that equaled or even exceeded those of adults.
00:00:15
People who seem destined to be "geniuses".
00:00:20
Amadeus Mozart, for example,
00:00:22
composed music since he was 5 years old.
00:00:25
He could copy the composition
00:00:26
of an entire orchestral performance
00:00:29
purely by memory.
00:00:31
And at the time he was just a teenager.
00:00:33
Bobby Fischer won the world chess championship
00:00:36
at the age of 14.
00:00:37
He won the title of Grandmaster
00:00:39
just a year later.
00:00:41
Jean-François Champollion
00:00:43
mastered seven languages
00:00:44
when he was 13 years old
00:00:46
and later used this skill
00:00:49
to decipher the hieroglyphs
00:00:51
inscribed on the Rosetta Stone.
00:00:53
You also must have known friends at school
00:00:56
who seemed to easily master subjects.
00:01:00
All the while, you tried as hard as possible
00:01:03
and still couldn't get close to their level.
00:01:06
So, is it true that some people are born geniuses?
00:01:10
Is our intelligence determined by heredity?
00:01:13
And if so,
00:01:14
can we work hard to change this destiny?
00:01:17
To answer all these questions,
00:01:19
let's take a look at this video.
00:01:31
The debate between the effects of
00:01:32
genetic and environmental factors on personality
00:01:35
is better known as
00:01:37
the "nature vs nurture" debate.
00:01:39
Is everything that makes us who we are,
00:01:40
from physical to psychological aspects,
00:01:42
already written in our DNA?
00:01:45
Or are we like lumps of clay?
00:01:48
Instead, shaped by our own environment
00:01:50
and life experiences?
00:01:52
For now, there has been one way
00:01:54
to explore this question.
00:01:56
That is, by studying twins.
00:01:59
More precisely,
00:02:00
identical siblings separated from birth.
00:02:03
But, why these exactly?
00:02:05
Because identical siblings share 100% of the same DNA.
00:02:09
As such, the only variable that can change personality
00:02:13
is the environment.
00:02:15
Theoretically,
00:02:16
if two twins grew up in very different environments
00:02:20
but end up with the same personality traits,
00:02:22
then it can be concluded that genetic factors
00:02:25
have the greater impact on personality.
00:02:28
This theory received great attention in 1979,
00:02:32
when identical twin brothers,
00:02:33
Jim Lewis and Jim Springer,
00:02:35
met for the first time
00:02:36
after living apart for 39 years.
00:02:39
Even though they had never met each other,
00:02:41
they lived their personal lives in an eerily similar manner.
00:02:45
For example, when they were younger
00:02:48
they would vacation on the same beach
00:02:50
and both had a dog they named Toy.
00:02:54
In adulthood,
00:02:55
they both married a woman named Linda,
00:02:58
got divorced,
00:02:59
and remarried.
00:03:01
This time, with a woman named Betty.
00:03:03
They both had a son
00:03:04
that they named James Alan.
00:03:06
Besides that,
00:03:07
their jobs,
00:03:08
hobbies,
00:03:09
and even the brands of cigarettes and beer they preferred
00:03:12
...were all the same.
00:03:13
The case of Jim and Jim fascinated many people
00:03:16
and prompted large-scale research initiatives.
00:03:19
These initiatives aimed to study
00:03:21
identical twins who grew up apart.
00:03:24
Over the course of two decades, this study called
00:03:26
"The Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart,"
00:03:28
looked at more than 100 pairs of twins.
00:03:32
And they found something interesting
00:03:34
about the role of genes in human intelligence.
00:03:37
The Minnesota Study found that
00:03:39
the heritability or inheritance of IQ was 70%.
00:03:43
Other studies showed that heritability ranged
00:03:47
from 57% - 73%.
00:03:50
Moreover,
00:03:51
when comparing the correlation of IQ scores
00:03:53
between separated twins,
00:03:55
their IQ scores have a higher likelihood of being similar.
00:04:00
Even when compared to siblings living together.
00:04:04
So, what does this all mean?
00:04:06
Does the 70% heritability of IQ
00:04:10
mean that education can only affect
00:04:12
30% of our intelligence level?
00:04:15
Definitely not.
00:04:16
Heritability is not that simple.
00:04:18
What you need to know is that
00:04:20
the heritability number is not a fixed value.
00:04:23
Instead, it changes significantly
00:04:24
depending on the environment.
00:04:26
Some genetic diseases
00:04:28
that have 100% heritability
00:04:30
such as Phenylketonuria,
00:04:32
a birth defect that causes intellectual disabilities,
00:04:34
can be treated by adopting a specific diet.
00:04:36
Moreover, higher heritability does not mean that
00:04:40
more effort is needed to change the affected trait.
00:04:44
The easiest example is hair color.
00:04:47
This physical trait has a very high heritability value.
00:04:50
However, we can easily change our hair by dyeing it.
00:04:55
Okay, so now we know that genes do play a role
00:05:00
in affecting our intelligence.
00:05:02
So then, how about the role of environment on intelligence?
00:05:07
How exactly do genes impact how smart we are?
00:05:11
Does anything like a “smart gene” exist?
00:05:14
OK, this last question is tricky for two reasons.
00:05:18
First, "smart" is subjective.
00:05:20
There are many things that we may consider as "smart".
00:05:24
Intelligence consists of many aspects such as:
00:05:26
memory,
00:05:27
language skills,
00:05:28
logic,
00:05:29
body coordination,
00:05:30
art,
00:05:31
interpersonal skills,
00:05:32
and many more.
00:05:34
A doctor and a professional athlete for instance,
00:05:37
can both be considered "smart"
00:05:39
even though they operate in different fields.
00:05:42
And secondly,
00:05:43
although the exact number is still debated,
00:05:45
some studies have concluded
00:05:48
that there are many genes that affect intelligence.
00:05:51
A lot in fact.
00:05:52
To illustrate how many,
00:05:54
let's take body height as an example.
00:05:56
In your DNA,
00:05:58
there are more than 700 different genes
00:06:01
that affect height.
00:06:02
Each of these can increase or decrease height
00:06:06
by approximately 1 millimeter.
00:06:08
This example of height
00:06:10
is a physical aspect that is easy to measure.
00:06:13
Intelligence though, is more complicated than height,
00:06:16
so you can imagine just how many genes
00:06:20
have an influence on intelligence levels.
00:06:22
Some genes may have a direct influence.
00:06:25
For example, genes that increase the growth of brain neurons.
00:06:27
Other genes may have indirect effects.
00:06:30
Such as ones that make you enjoy the smell of books,
00:06:33
thereby increasing your likelihood of reading.
00:06:36
The role of genes on our personality
00:06:38
is very complex.
00:06:39
But what is clear,
00:06:40
is that genes don't act alone.
00:06:43
Many people think that what shapes a person's personality
00:06:46
is either genes OR the environment.
00:06:48
But in fact,
00:06:50
it is both the genes and your environment
00:06:52
that make who you are today.
00:06:54
Just imagine
00:06:56
if boy geniuses like Mozart,
00:06:58
Fischer,
00:06:58
and Champollion
00:07:00
did not live in an environment
00:07:01
that supported their talents.
00:07:03
What if they were born poor?
00:07:05
Or didn't have a mentor to guide them?
00:07:08
Or did not have family that supported their passions?
00:07:11
It's clear that the environment has a huge impact
00:07:15
on our level of intelligence,
00:07:16
regardless of genetic factors.
00:07:18
But then, in the real world,
00:07:21
how do we compete with people who have both?
00:07:24
The ones who were both born in a supportive environment
00:07:27
and who were born with genetic potential
00:07:29
to absorb knowledge faster,
00:07:30
and develop faster.
00:07:33
How can we develop just as fast?
00:07:36
Based on research from Anders Ericsson,
00:07:38
a psychologist from Florida State University,
00:07:40
one way is "Deliberate Practice".
00:07:43
"Deliberate Practice" is a method to practice skills
00:07:46
in a systematic manner with clear goals.
00:07:49
So, instead of practicing the same thing
00:07:51
over and over again without thinking,
00:07:52
Deliberate Practice emphasizes the importance of
00:07:54
practicing a specific aspect of our skill
00:07:57
to improve it better.
00:08:00
For example, instead of making repeated
00:08:02
free throws without a goal,
00:08:04
with Deliberate Practice,
00:08:05
we record every time our free throws fail,
00:08:08
identify the cause of the failure
00:08:10
and fix it so it doesn't happen again.
00:08:13
So, now let's return to the original question.
00:08:16
Do genes and genetics affect our level of intelligence?
00:08:21
Of course it does.
00:08:22
Are genes the only factors that affects intelligence?
00:08:26
Definitely not.
00:08:28
In the end,
00:08:29
what is contained in your DNA,
00:08:30
is only pure potential.
00:08:32
This is meaningless if it is not backed up
00:08:36
by education and effort.
00:08:38
Even though we are not completely born
00:08:40
as formless, shapeless pieces of clay,
00:08:42
we are also not born with a destiny and future
00:08:45
already spelled out in front of our eyes.
00:08:47
We are all born with latent potential
00:08:49
that we cannot see.
00:08:51
Either academic potential,
00:08:52
athletic,
00:08:53
or even artistic.
00:08:55
What we should do then is find it,
00:08:58
and do our best to nurture and hone it.
00:09:00
That's it for this video.
00:09:02
We would like to thank Zenius
00:09:04
who worked with us on the making of this video.
00:09:07
As we have already said,
00:09:08
genes do not determine everything.
00:09:11
Study and practice is still very important.
00:09:13
Especially practice by applying "Deliberate Practice".
00:09:17
So, how can we learn this method?
00:09:21
To learn with Deliberate Practice,
00:09:23
you can use the Zenius application.
00:09:26
It's equipped with the Zenius Learning Framework
00:09:28
to teach you the Zenius style of learning.
00:09:30
Here, you will learn the fundamental concepts
00:09:33
of science, logic and language.
00:09:36
There is no rote memorization here.
00:09:39
In addition, there is the Zencore feature
00:09:40
which contains practice questions to train you
00:09:42
to think more rationally.
00:09:44
The aim is to help you make better decisions
00:09:46
in everyday life.
00:09:48
You can download the application
00:09:50
on the App Store and Play Store right now.
