November 28, 2006
Is Success Hereditary?
German researchers say that success is hereditary -- or at least the willingness to take risks and the willingness to trust other people runs in families. And along the way they discovered that likes, not opposites attract.
Parents shape the character of their offspring, who in turn prefer to choose a partner similar to themselves. These two effects could contribute to attitudes such as willingness to take risks and confidence in others being "inherited" across several generations. At the same time these character traits are decisive, among other factors, for economic success. "Every economic decision is risky, whether it is about buying shares, building a house or just starting to study at university," Armin Falk emphasises. "On the other hand success in business also involves the right amount of trust."
If you are that interested, you can read the original article here. I didn't wade through it to see if they actually correlated economic success with the traits of risk taking and trust.
Posted by Kevin Murphy at November 28, 2006 12:09 PM | Science
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It continues to be profoundly depressing at what passes for science these days. Once again, correlation does not equal causation. If there were a sizable control group of children raised by other than their biological parents to factor out the nurture vice nature component, then I could take this a little more seriously.
Posted by: charles austin at November 28, 2006 12:47 PM
