Smart parents always have smart children? Ukrainian geneticist refutes popular myth

There is a popular myth that intelligence is inherited. Thus, smart parents allegedly always have smart children. But is this really true?

Ukrainian geneticist Dmytro Mykytenko is sure it is not. On YouTube, he explained this using the example of egg donation.

"Success is 98% perseverance," says Mykytenko. "A person cannot become smart even with a genetic predisposition. There are also cases when there is a predisposition but no opportunity to use it."

According to the geneticist, this is one of the most common reasons for egg donation. That is, egg donors are most often women who need financial support. And they don't have a university degree to prove their mental abilities.

Dmytro explains that there is no need to include the skills "knows how to play the violin" and "graduated from law school" in the donation questionnaire. "The woman may have had life circumstances that prevented her from going to law school, succeed in ballet, or play violin, but the inclination remained. The genetic predisposition allows her to absorb information and be successful. That's why smart parents don't always have smart children," the geneticist is sure.

The expert also talks about other options when genetics doesn't work or works differently. For example, parents are successful and intelligent and work hard but don't give their child enough of their time. A child deprived of attention does not develop right. Or, on the contrary, parents who have addictions (alcohol or drug) may well raise a smart and successful child.

According to a geneticist, four hormones influence a person's success, addiction, or habit formation: oxytocin, dopamine, endorphin, and serotonin. And any combinations of genetic code that affect the efficiency of these hormones affect our sensitivity.

"There are cases when, with certain combinations of genetic code, you can be more dependent on something, but it can be an addiction either to slot machine or sports. At the end of the day, we get the same emotions but in different ways," says Dmytro.

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