By: Emily Sohn
From: Science News for Kids
How much of a personality is decided by your genes? Well, scientists have been trying to figure that out for years. When you are an identical twin, are you more likely to end up like your twin than if you were fraternal? Studies say yes. Scientists figured out that what makes up your personality is a combination of genes and raising. For example, if one identical twin was extremely outgoing, the other twin is more liking to be outgoing also than if the twins were fraternal, or part of the other experiment group, virtual. Virtual twins are siblings that were raised in the same home around the same age but did not have the same parents. These would be families of adopted children that had kids at the same time or other cases like that. For the most part, scientists learned that the more genes you shared with your twin, the more alike you were likely to be. If you were raised differently, those genes could be turned on or off.
The independant variable in this experiment was the different types of twins, identical, fraternal, and virtual, and how long they had spent together. The types of twins were the variable that was being manipulated. The dependant variable was the personality and choices of the different groups of twins.
I thought it was a very good experiment. I liked learning about it. I always believed that what you did was more of a direct example of how you were raised, but this experiment showed me that your genes also have a lot to do with it. What surprised me the most was that over time, the twins became more similar in their choices, even after being separated. I think they should have tested different types of twins with similar family life and seen how genes could go from there. I think a good follow-up experiment would be testing if the time the baby spends in the womb has anything to do with their genes and choices. I enjoyed the article.
I thought it was a very good experiment. I liked learning about it. I always believed that what you did was more of a direct example of how you were raised, but this experiment showed me that your genes also have a lot to do with it. What surprised me the most was that over time, the twins became more similar in their choices, even after being separated. I think they should have tested different types of twins with similar family life and seen how genes could go from there. I think a good follow-up experiment would be testing if the time the baby spends in the womb has anything to do with their genes and choices. I enjoyed the article.
I think that article was really interesting. I didnt think that genes had anything to do with personallity. However, i think you should have included the part about the mental illnesses, because i thought that was really interesting.
ReplyDelete-Ashley L.