If a student excels in education, is it because he or she is genetically more likely to prevail academically or is it because he or she is in a more advantageous position? If a man kills someone it is because he was born with violent tendencies, or he learned by observing the behavior of those around him. Is a person's personality predestined before birth, or does the way they are treated and their experiences shape the person they become? The concept of nature versus nurture boils down to the question of whether genetics or environment plays the most important factor in the outcome of someone's life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The nature versus nurture debate was introduced by Sir Frances Galton, a psychologist in the late 1800s. Nature's argument is that genes are an immutable pattern, present in you from birth, that decides everything about person you are. Many characteristics are controlled by your genes. Including your blood type, eye color and hair color. The argument of education is that our environment is what makes us, us. It refers to the effect of the environment on our characteristics. For example, a person's weight. Additionally, some diseases are caused by the environment in which a person lives. For example, type two diabetes and coronary heart disease. However, scientists have found a way to study specific people to see whether it is nature or nurture that influences us more. Many experiments have been conducted over the years, mainly through the study of animals. Researcher Michael Meany is an example of this as he studied a group of rats to determine whether having a more affectionate mother affected how they behaved with their children when they were older. He concluded that rats who had more loving mothers proved to be more caring towards their children. While rats raised with less friendly and loving mothers showed the same characteristics with their children. The effect that genetics and environment have on our characteristics has also been studied using identical twins. Since identical twins have the same DNA, they would theoretically also have identical characteristics. From the study it follows that any differences between a pair of identical twins could be due to the influence of the environment on their characteristics. These studies have shown that many characteristics are influenced by both genetics and the environment. Recently, in 2015, researcher Dr. Beben Benyamin and researchers from the University of Amsterdam analyzed approximately every twin study carried out over the past 50 years. “When you visit the nature versus nurture debate, there is overwhelming evidence that both genetic and environmental factors can influence traits and diseases,” said Dr. Beben Benyamin. “On average, about 50% of individual differences are genetic and the remaining 50% are environmental. However, there were still exceptions, hence this statement. As when they looked at bipolar disorder, it was found that about 70% genetic factors and only 30% environmental factors were the cause of the disorder. Furthermore, observations in a more recent field of study suggest that both the nature and nurture sides are partly accurate. This field is called epigenetics and has to do with how nature and nurture interact. Lifestyle and environmental influences such as exercise, nutrition, stress and smoking can influence and modify our genes. These altered genes can be inherited by future generations., 447(7143), 433-440.