Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff
Speaker 1: Lauren Volgebaum here, what does it take to be considered
Speaker 1: a genius? Is a genius a remarkable artist who moves
Speaker 1: our spirits, a scientist who changes the way we understand
Speaker 1: the world, or a student who scores off the charts
Speaker 1: on every aptitude test. Okay, tests can be biased, in
Speaker 1: can be gained, But consider those other varieties of geniuses,
Speaker 1: people with amazing musical, artistic, athletic, and intellectual talents. Is
Speaker 1: genius nature or nurture? Were the Mozarts and monaise of
Speaker 1: the world born with their genius or did their environment
Speaker 1: shape who they became? Genetics does appear to have a
Speaker 1: big role in our intelligence and talents. Researchers at Washington
Speaker 1: University School of Medicine in Saint Louis have identified a
Speaker 1: specific genes that may help manage our skill level for
Speaker 1: organizing things logically. And although this is just one part
Speaker 1: of the mystery between our genes and intelligence, the discovery
Speaker 1: certainly warrants some thought. This type of discovery may help
Speaker 1: explain why early studies in regard to intelligence seem to
Speaker 1: favor genetics over environment when it comes to IQ scores.
Speaker 1: Those studies showed that even though some adoptive children grew
Speaker 1: up in an environment completely separate from their biological parents,
Speaker 1: their IQs were more aligned with their biological parents than
Speaker 1: that of the adoptive parents. But that's not the end
Speaker 1: of the story. That possible gene linked to organizing things
Speaker 1: logically is one piece of a much larger puzzle that
Speaker 1: goes for intelligence and other talents as well. Most of
Speaker 1: the time, when society claims someone as a genius, it's
Speaker 1: for multiple traits personality, cognitive capacity, motivation, all working together.
Speaker 1: Even though these loved traits have a basis in genetics,
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean that they're set in stone. After all,
Speaker 1: one trait may require a collaboration of multiple genes. According
Speaker 1: to cognitive psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman, a hereditary advantage for
Speaker 1: a trait that might lead us to great things isn't
Speaker 1: sure to express itself. Genes develop on their own on
Speaker 1: their own timeline. That means someone could be a child
Speaker 1: prodigy if everything comes together early on, but genius might
Speaker 1: not emerge until later in life, and it could even wane.
Speaker 1: This is where genetics and environment collide. For anyone who
Speaker 1: doesn't hit the genetic jackpot. How much hope can environmental
Speaker 1: influences provide a lot? It turns out, especially when it
Speaker 1: comes to superior performance. A per psychologist Kay Anders Ericson.
Speaker 1: Ericson found that even though our society's high performers, such
Speaker 1: as Olympic athletes and first chair musicians seem born to
Speaker 1: their roles, we can be assured that knowledge, training, and
Speaker 1: practice are at play. In essence, they've earned their genius
Speaker 1: titles and set themselves apart through good old fashioned hard work.
Speaker 1: A Creating a setting conducive to hard work and developing
Speaker 1: a genius may start with a person's home environment. A
Speaker 1: socioeconomic status appears to be an underlying factor here, but
Speaker 1: even in the most loving and encouraging home, limited access
Speaker 1: to resources, educational programs, and even proper nutrition can be
Speaker 1: daunting challenges. There's a concept in sociology called the Matthew effect,
Speaker 1: named for a biblical passage a Matthew twenty five twenty
Speaker 1: nine that describes how a person with abundance will continue
Speaker 1: to accrue abundance. Its biblical meaning has been debated, but
Speaker 1: sociologically speaking, the Matthew effect means that people tend to
Speaker 1: gain success of whatever kind proportionally to whatever resources they
Speaker 1: started out with, So in talking about genius, the ideas
Speaker 1: that someone with even a minor natural ability has a
Speaker 1: better chance of growing that ability than a person without it.
Speaker 1: This involves another psychological concept called the multiplier effect, which
Speaker 1: takes that inkling of ability and multiplies its strength exponentially
Speaker 1: to design an environment conducive to fostering it. For example,
Speaker 1: if a child shows a small amount of athletic promise,
Speaker 1: maybe they can kick a ball farther than their pals.
Speaker 1: That child might start kicking the ball more often, and
Speaker 1: might hang out with other kids who can kick a
Speaker 1: ball and join a soccer team. The adults in the
Speaker 1: child's life might applaud their success, leading to even more
Speaker 1: practice and more achievement. On the other hand, a kid
Speaker 1: who falls down the first time they kick a ball
Speaker 1: might be picked last for the team and be too
Speaker 1: discouraged to give it another try. So neither genetics nor
Speaker 1: environment appear to work alone, and you can't misscessarily predict
Speaker 1: a genius from birth. Who knows when and at what
Speaker 1: point your genius might develop? After all, what if the
Speaker 1: reason that the child fell the first time they tried
Speaker 1: to kick the ball wasn't because of a lack of skill,
Speaker 1: but rather slippery grass. Today's episode is based on the
Speaker 1: article is Genius Genetic on how stuffworks dot com, written
Speaker 1: by Elizabeth Sprouse. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in
Speaker 1: partnership with how Stuffworks dot Com and is produced by
Speaker 1: Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows.