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YouTube Tragedy and a lesson in changing society.

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
The debate on nature versus nurture has been going on for quite a long time. You want some links on how environment can change people? I only have to look at my own country how prosperity changed a famed violent-gened country into a model of peace and quiet, but I've read studies about it also, long ago...

Sure, if nothing is triggering the anger. My interest is how different folks act differently under the same circumstances.

I'm sure genes always play some role, but I think it's too easy to make more of the gene expression changes under duress than simply saying someone has a violence-gene.

Or simply blaming culture or upbringing. Genetics alone is complicated enough without the assumption of a "violence gene". Genetics doesn't work that way. Some traits can be repressed by other traits. So even having a particular gene doesn't mean it's going to affect your personality.

Still, from birth, how much control do we actually have over ourselves? Where's the line between the person we will ourselves to be versus the person we're programed to be? I suspect genetic programming plays a larger roles than some folks would like to admit.
 

Jumi

Well-Known Member
Sure, if nothing is triggering the anger. My interest is how different folks act differently under the same circumstances.
The only way you could see that in isolation is if they also had identical upbringing.

Or simply blaming culture or upbringing. Genetics alone is complicated enough without the assumption of a "violence gene". Genetics doesn't work that way. Some traits can be repressed by other traits. So even having a particular gene doesn't mean it's going to affect your personality.
Environment and genes both play a role, sure. Most of that feeling that people have that they wouldn't react violently no matter what is from people who haven't gone through periods of constant humiliations in their lives. There was a prison study I read years ago that showed violent criminals paying extra attention if they were respected or not compared to regular folks. Much of it was down to traumas they had experienced while growing up.

Still, from birth, how much control do we actually have over ourselves? Where's the line between the person we will ourselves to be versus the person we're programed to be? I suspect genetic programming plays a larger roles than some folks would like to admit.
Of course it plays a large role. It's like a complex sequence of potential switches in my view. Like with the recent story of the astronaut, their genetic expression changed compared to their twin who never left earth, giving more potential to develop health problems.
 
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