What is heretability exactly?

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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

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Heritability refers to the ability of a trait to be passed down, and it can be divided up into genetic and social heritability.

The genetic component, fairly obviously, is purely physical. And it varies dramatically from one trait to another. If you are talking about about eye color, then that is genetic heritability pure and simple. But topics as complicated as intelligence cannot be defined so simply. Most of what is going to end up affecting someone’s ultimate level of intelligence is social, with knowledge and mannerisms passed from one source to another.

Barring extreme cases like genetic developmental disorders, the effects of genetics on intelligence appears to be much, much less than the effect of one social condition, to the point of being essentially negligible.

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