A fun one which came up recently on IRC: everyone thinks that how your parents raise you is incredibly important, this is so obvious it doesn’t need any proof and is universal common sense, and you can find extended discussions of the best way to raise kids from Plato’s Republic to Rousseau’s Emile to Spock.
Except twin studies consistently estimate that the influence of ‘shared environment’ (the home) is small or near-zero for many traits compared to genetics and randomness/nonshared-environment.
This is quite possibly the most comforting scientific result ever for me as a parent, by the way.
Whereas for me, it’s horrifying, given that my ex-spouse turned out to be an astonishingly horrible person.
I seem to recall Yvain posting a link to something he referred to as the beginnings of a possible rebuttal to The Nurture Assumption; I suppose I shall have to hang my hopes on that.
It may or may not be comforting to reflect that your ex-spouse is probably less horrible than s/he seems to you. (Just on general outside-view principles; I have no knowledge of your situation or your ex.)
This is quite possibly the most comforting scientific result ever for me as a parent, by the way.
Whereas for me, it’s horrifying, given that my ex-spouse turned out to be an astonishingly horrible person.
I seem to recall Yvain posting a link to something he referred to as the beginnings of a possible rebuttal to The Nurture Assumption; I suppose I shall have to hang my hopes on that.
It may or may not be comforting to reflect that your ex-spouse is probably less horrible than s/he seems to you. (Just on general outside-view principles; I have no knowledge of your situation or your ex.)
You feared more than you hoped, eh?