• Question: Can you be born intelligent

    Asked by anon-204615 to Sally, Lucy, David, Dan on 13 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Dan Taylor

      Dan Taylor answered on 13 Mar 2019:

      Yeah absolutely! Whilst you can try hard still do well, genetics have been related to intelligence, it makes sense that some people may have been born with a biological advantage. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try though, biology is just half the story!

    • Photo: David Chadwick

      David Chadwick answered on 13 Mar 2019:

      Yes I definitely believe that genetics play a large part in the inherent intelligence that people are born with.
      Of course what happens next in terms of love, education, relationships etc also effects how your native intelligence is honed and trained.
      But to take an extreme example, if you are born with brain damage then you will never become an Einstein no matter how good the environment and your care is

    • Photo: Sally Tilt

      Sally Tilt answered on 13 Mar 2019:

      Hmm- I’m not sure I quite agree with Dan and David on this one. Actually, if you take any newborn baby – even the most brilliant one – they are not really that intelligent. They are still working out where they are, and making sense of all their new experiences. Don’t get me wrong – they are all pretty cute – but I wouldn’t ask them for help with my physics homework.

      What they do have though is the potential to be intelligent – and different genetic make-ups will make a difference to how easy or difficult it is to learn particular things. It really depends however on what happens to the baby next – to become intelligent they need to be exposed to stimulation from their environment and also to build relationships with the people around them.

      I’d also say that people have different types of abilities – it is possible to measure ability through something like a person’s IQ – but psychologists have also described emotional intelligence – which is often just as, if not more important in relation to a person doing well in life. There are many examples of people who go o to be very successful in life (e.g Richard Branson), who struggled at school and would not have been seen as intelligent – but he clearly has some special abilities in business at least.

    • Photo: Lucy Maddox

      Lucy Maddox answered on 14 Mar 2019:

      Genetics do predispose us to have a certain level of intelligence but our environment as we grow influences this – we need opportunities to learn in order for our brains to develop – so seize all the opportunities you can! 🙂 And don’t let anyone tell you you aren’t clever enough – there are lots of different types of intelligence – not just being good at school for example, but also being emotionally intelligent, or good at dance and movement (proprioceptively intelligent)…

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