A study has revealed that genes influence as much as over 60% on academic performance even after considering intelligence of a human being. We’ve have come across studies that connect happiness, health and occupational stature to life trajectory and achievements but this study reveals something completely different. Does that mean we are born smart or dumb? Not exactly but yes, it does mean that genes do have a substantial influence on your academic success. Almost two third of individual differences in achievements in school can be explained on the basis of their DNA as per the post-doctoral fellow of psychology, Margherita Malanchini. This study is helpful in a sense that it can be used to identify children who are in dire need of early intervention because if there are genetic issues related to academic success they are bound to stay through the schooling years.
The study was carried out over 6000 pairs of twins from primary and uptil the end of compulsory education. Genetic factors influenced as much as 70% while in twins it was 25% due to the shared environment and 5% due to non -shared environment factors. But, a significant drop in grades was non due to change in non-shared environment factors.
A group of researchers have worked on 1200 differences in genes that are used to measure the level of education people achieve. As per these researchers, their findings do shed light on the role played in human behaviour by genes.
These researchers have studied the educational history of over one million people across the age group of 30 plus from 15 different European countries. When they tried to analyze people on their mathematical abilities as per their education level, they could point out to many genetic associations to these traits.
Well that does not mean, that an individual cannot become a successful person if he or she does not have it in their genes but yes it does tell us that genetics is powerful enough and that the study can help researchers explore in depth the relationship between environment and genetics for shaping the academic trajectory of an individual.
