Random find of the day:
In a study of cognitive ability in 750 sets of twins, researchers found that
At 10 months, there was no difference in how the children from different socioeconomic backgrounds performed. By 2 years, children from high socioeconomic background scored significantly higher than those from low socioeconomic backgrounds. . .
“Our findings suggest that socioeconomic disparities in cognitive development start early,” says Tucker-Drob. “For children from poorer homes, genetic influences on changes in cognitive ability were close to zero. For children from wealthier homes, genes accounted for about half of the variation in cognitive changes.”
Follow up research is planned to investigate which environmental and familial behavior factors are causing that shift in performance.
If early childhood cognitive development is dependent on access to resources – educational, nutritional, and emotional — we may be shortchanging children to the detriment of the next generation. Prospects for upward social mobility become much more difficult when your game is handicapped before play begins. And what of budding Einsteins that don’t have the opportunity to become brilliant contributors to their nation and industry?
What responsibility would we have as a nation if this research bears out? Should policy try to compensate for the possibility that the economic class impacts genetic potential?
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