Nature vs.

Nurture Debate: 50-Year Twin Study

Proves It Takes Two To Determine Human
Traits
May 22, 2015 03:07 PM By Dana Dovey@danadovey

The experts agree that overall it's 50/50 when it comes to nature versus nurture. Photo courtesy of
Shutterstock
A culmination of more than half a century of research collected on 14.5 million pairs of
twins has finally concluded that the nature versus nurture debate is a draw. According to
the plethora of data, both have nearly identical influences on a person’s behavior, which
suggests we need to stop looking at ourselves as a result of nature versus nurture, and
instead realize we are a combination of both.
The recent study, published in the journal Nature Genetics, is the result of the
collaboration between Dr. Beben Benyamin from the Queensland Brain Institute and
researchers at the VU University of Amsterdam. They reviewed nearly every twin study
ever done in the past 50 years. The impressive global twin review revealed that, on
average, the variation for human traits and diseases is split almost equally.
“When visiting the nature versus nurture debate, there is overwhelming evidence that
both genetic and environmental factors can influence traits and diseases,” Benyamin
said in the press release. “What is comforting is that, on average, about 50 percent of
individual differences are genetic and 50 percent are environmental.
The finding did not ring true for every case, however, as certain conditions leaned way
more than others. For example, in the case of bipolar disorder, this was found to be
around 70 percent genetic and only 30 percent due to environmental factors.

Although the finding may be unsatisfying for those hoping that one side of the spectrum
held more weight than the other, according to Benyamin, the findings have “implications
for choosing the best strategy to find genes affecting disease.” The data may also
change the way that scientists approach the study of genetics. In about 69 percent of
the cases, the twins' individual traits ended up being the cumulative effect of genetic
differences.

“This means that there are good reasons to study the biology of human traits, and that
the combined effect of many genes on a trait is simply the sum of the effect of each
individual gene,” Benyamin explained.

Twin studies have been an integral part of science because of the unique genetic
similarities between twin siblings. Identical twins develop from a single fertilized egg and
they have the same genome. This means that any differences between the twins
are due to their environment, not their genetics. For nearly a century scientists have
used twin studies to better understand the extent to which certain traits are inherited.
Reading: Answer the following questions below: (50 pts)

1. After 50 years of studying TWIN…what where the findings

regarding heritability and environmental factors. You may list 2.
2. How can the result of this study benefit genetic or clinical aspect of
psychology?
3. What is your personal insight after reading this article.