Nature vs. Nurture Fallacy

When I hear the phrase "nature vs. nurture," what I almost immediately think of is the debates that sprung up over the past years about the "cause" of homosexuality in humans. I would like to start by saying that although this may be relevant to those debates, I do not intend this to be my entry into those arguments (though, feel free to use it for that purpose).

It is important to note that when people talk about "nature vs. nurture," there are specific meanings behind these words and the phrase as a whole. These specific meanings are important for understanding the argument and the issues as a whole.

Firstly, it is important to understand that what is being asked about with this phrase is the cause of some behavior or attribute. For instance, we could look at the texture of chocolate chip cookies or the foraging behavior of honey bees. Does the nature of the cookie (the ingredient recipe behind it) or the nurture (how it was mixed and baked) determine the texture of the resulting cookie? In the same way, we could ask whether it is the nature or the nurture of honey bee workers that cause them to be foragers.

Secondly, the word nature is used to refer to the physical origin of something or the material that actually makes something up. In the case of the chocolate chip cookie, the nature of the cookie would be the set of ingredients that go into the batter to make it. In the case of the honey bees, the nature would be the genetic information that told the cells and rest of the body what to do.

The word nurture is used to refer to the circumstances involving the development of the subject to its current state. The nurture of the cookie would be the process used to mix the ingredients and bake it. The nurture of the honey bees involves all of the things that influenced it as it was being born and raised in the colony as well as all the interactions it has with other bees, it's environment, and other organisms.

The actual issue here is the fact that people use evidences of the effects of nature and nurture as proofs of what caused certain behaviors and traits. One of the most commonly used incorrect phrases goes something like the following: "There is a gene for ________ (a phenotype)." This statement implies that there is no environmental component in the existence of the particular trait within the individual. Another commonly misused phrased is as follows: "Behavior/trait __________ is a learned behavior/trait." This statement implies that there is no genetic component to the development of the particular trait within the individual. The point here is that traits themselves cannot be attributed to either nature or nurture alone. There is no scientific or logical way to say that one is the cause without any effect from the other.

To go back to our cookie example, it would be completely improper to say that the chewy nature of a particular cookie is the result of how it was baked. How could you say that when there are so many factors that go into how a cookie is made? Who is to say that the ingredients of the cookie had nothing to do with the chewy nature of it? If you say that the baking is what made it chewy, why wouldn't I be able to say that that peanut butter in it is what makes it chewy (and be equally right)? Well, logically, you can't say that the chewy nature is due to any one factor because if you took out all the other factors (isolating your single variable), you wouldn't even have a cookie anymore.

What we can do is look at two cookies that have different textures (maybe one chewy and one crunchy) and define what the cause of the difference is. If we do some experiments and rule out other factors by controlling the ingredients and mixing techniques (and other things), we can determine definitely that baking is the cause for the difference between two cookies. The same thing goes for traits within animals (including humans, of course).

If interest is shown in this post, I will consider posting more extensively about this topic in the future. There are tons and tons of studies that could be discussed with respect to the nature vs. nurture fallacy and how we actually look at differences between individuals.

Be a Fan