Or better explained. I probably don’t understand the concept fully. I cannot grasp how the heretability of certain traits (e.g intelligence) can increase over time. Thanks for your answers.
In: Biology
You are talking about the [Wilson Effect.](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/twin-research-and-human-genetics/article/wilson-effect-the-increase-in-heritability-of-iq-with-age/FF406CC4CF286D78AF72C9E7EF9B5E3F/core-reader)
Heritability is when you ask “What is the proportion of the variation in a given trait within a population that is not explained by the environment or random chance?”
In a little kid, the environment explains a larger proportion of the variation in a given trait. So if you have one twin and send them to a good school and feed them healthy food, they will have a very different IQ than the twin you send to a bad school and inadequately feed. So maybe only 50% of the variation can be explained by genetics.
But say you check in with those twins again as adults. They are likely to have more similar IQs than when they were kids. Perhaps 80% of the variation is explained by genetics. Nutrition and school matters less as an adult, and genetics matter more when talking about the person’s peak IQ.
That heritability went from 50% to 80% (i.e., a 0.5 to 0.8 correlation). This correlates with an increase in age. So you can say that heritability increases with age. It’s just a weird way of phrasing it based on how the statistics from research studies are presented.
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