Human Growth and Development / Unit 1 HGD 0014 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Gene–Environment Correlation
The idea
Gene–environment correlation means that people's genes help shape the environments they experience, so the two cannot be treated as independent. It comes in three types. In passive correlation, parents pass on both genes and a home: parents who love reading give their children genes and a house full of books. In evocative correlation, a child's inherited traits draw particular responses from others: a child who reads constantly prompts trips to the library. In active correlation, people choose settings that fit their tendencies: the child joins a book club.
In practice
One reading child, three routes: the books her parents own, the library trips her reading prompts, and the club she picks for herself.
Where people slip
Twin and adoption studies show that genes partly shape the environments people experience. That complicates any study that treats a child's environment as purely a cause: a home full of books may reflect the parents' genes, which the child shares, as much as the books themselves. Separating nature from nurture therefore takes designs that pull the two apart.
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