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The ageless argument on whether our behavior and intelligence is mostly shaped by environment or by heredity, often referred to as “Nature vs. Nurture”, may finally have an answer: “The Nature of Nurture”. Authored by perhaps the world’s leading behavioral geneticist, Dr. Robert Plomin, “Blueprint” represents the culmination of his 45 years of research into this very subject.
To a layperson, the obvious question that comes to mind is how is it even possible to disentangle which behavioral traits are due to nature or nurture? There happens to be two very simple answers to this question: large longitudinal twin and adoption studies combined with the ongoing decoding of the human genome.
With Blueprint, Plomin is leveraging the late stage of his distinguished career to publish the culmination of his life’s work on this controversial subject. He’s certainly cognizant of the ideological resistance in the social sciences to any form of genetic explanations, as the prevailing orthodoxy assumes that only environment, and particularly parenting, are causal in largely shaping who we are and our life outcomes.
The Nature of Nurture
Blueprint’s main thesis is what Plomin calls “the nature of nurture” which posits that our genes are nudging us to respond to, interact with, and even shape our environments to fit our individual genetic dispositions. Plomin states ‘Psychological environments are not “out there” imposed on us passively. They are “in here”, experienced by us as we actively perceive, interpret, select, modify, and even create environments correlated with our genetic propensities.”
A simple example Plomin gives is that it’s widely assumed that children who are read to by their parents do better in reading in school and that this is a causal relationship. This is not the case, the relationship is actually correlational in that parents who enjoy reading and who appreciate the value of reading are more likely to be intelligent and want to read to their children too [who share 50% of the parent’s DNA] and that the children inherit some of these traits that make them more interested in and amenable to being read to. The parents may also be picking up on cues exhibited by the child to be read to or who enjoy the stimulation of being read to, while not reading to the child who is restless and would rather engage in rough and tumble play, or play with objects rather than being read to. The is the nature of nurture – subtle genetic cues from the child engage the environmental experience given to the child by the parent and vice versa.
Blueprint is divided into two main parts:
Part One: Why DNA Matters
Chapters
1. Disentangling nature and nurture
2. How do we know that DNA makes us who we are?
3. The nature of nurture
4. DNA matters more as time goes by
5. Abnormal is normal
6. Generalist genes
7. Why children in the same family are so different
8. The DNA blueprint
9. Equal opportunity and meritocracy
Part Two: The DNA Revolution
Chapters
1. DNA: The basics
2. Gene-hunting
3. The DNA fortune teller
4. Predicting who we are
5. Our future is DNA
In the first part of the book, Plomin walks the reader through his early research in behavioral genetics with the Colorado Adoption Project in the 1970s and how these early adoption and twin studies were designed. He explains the fundamentals on how the complex influences of heritability and of the environment can be disentangled and how they are controlled for in studies. And these are not just a few small, single-study samples of twins or adoptions – they encompass tens of thousands of individuals. For example:
• Colorado Adoption Project
• Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart
• Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging
• Louisville Twin Study
Most significant of all is the ongoing study of 13,000 twins born in the UK in the mid-1990s, who Plomin has been tracking and studying longitudinally for over 20 years, including collecting over 55 million items of data from the twins, their parents, and their teachers during this time.
In the second part of the book, Plomin walks the reader through the fundamentals of genetics and explains the terminologies of the science, and how genes are passed on from parent to child. He also explains how genes are identified and studied and how they are now thought to influence our behaviors. His objective here to make the reader literate in genetics as the DNA revolution that’s currently underway will surely advance and have a profound impact on how we understand ourselves.
Some key takeaways for this reviewer are:
• The nature of nurture
• Inherited DNA differences are the major systematic force in making us who we are
• Environment matters, but it’s effects are not systematic in nature, rather environment is a collection of random experiences and interactions
• Longitudinal twin and adoption studies supply a mountain of evidence and are invaluable to disentangling the influence of genes from the environment
• Parenting matters, but not near as much as commonly believed
• Educational achievement is more strongly predicted by genes than by environment or SES
• The DNA revolution is now identifying the specific bits of genes which correlate to behaviors and with cognitive functions/educational achievement
• Very large numbers of genes each contribute a small influence on a given trait (polygenic), rather than a few genes exerting a strong influence as was first thought
If there are any shortcomings with Blueprint, it’s that Plomin is careful not to infer extending his findings to group-level differences, such as between males and females or between ethnic groups. Valuable insights can be gained from such a logical extension in terms of better understanding group academic achievement differences, differences in gender behaviors, or group differences in developing criminal or anti-social behaviors with the objective being to identify and mitigate specific causal factors at the genetic level. Plomin has stated that this area is the “3rd Rail” in his field, suggesting that he’s well-aware of the career risks for researching these topics in this day and age of leftist “cancel culture” at universities and in the media - even if the science is on his side.
The data presented in Blueprint is about as robust, comprehensive, and predictive that there is in all of the social sciences and Plomin’s findings are incrementally becoming more difficult to refute with the ongoing decoding of the genome. There’s indeed a DNA revolution underway that’s sweeping away old assumptions, dogmas, and ideologies about human nature, and the fight to stem this rising tide of scientific evidence will be fierce, even from within the academy, but the truth will ultimately prevail if history is any lesson. With Blueprint, Plomin is preparing us for this eventuality.
So why should you read this book?
Now is an exciting age when the scientific revolution of DNA and the decoding of the human genome is advancing at an exponential rate. It’s fundamentally changing our understandings of how DNA makes us who we are and it’s speeding towards head-on collision with old ideological dogmas. But how many of us really understand what the science of DNA is saying about what makes us who we are? How often is our news media sharing this information and objectively explaining what these new findings mean?
What Plomin’s work is discovering about the nature of human behavior and genetics is analogous to what Pasteur’s work on germ theory did for understanding the microbial basis of disease transmission. When science can discover the unseen mechanics of nature, gone are the use of nebulous post hoc explanations and one’s ideologies to make sense of the observations.
We all would prefer to believe that our behavior and intelligence is mostly shaped by our parenting and by our social and educational environments, because this infers that we can ideally gain control and regulate these factors top-down to produce a more equitable, prosperous, and safer society - but the evidence for holding such a faith in the limitless mold-ability of man is becoming ever more fleeting. The Lysenkoism of the New Soviet Man is a cautionary tale in pursuing such an ostensibly benevolent environmentalist ideology at the expense of obfuscating and silencing good data-driven science on human nature such as what is shared with us here in Blueprint.
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Customers say
Customers find the book insightful, with one review noting how it explains scientific terminologies. They consider it a must-read that answers many questions about genetics, and one review highlights its excellent overview of heritability rates.
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31 customers mention informative, 27 positive, 4 negative
...into a single process that makes so much more sense and answers so many questions that the nurture model alone just can't explain very well....Read more
This a very insightful book based on extensive research that demonstrates that personality traits are determined by genes to a great degree just...Read more
...Although some of the hypotheses are controversial, many are thought-provoking, and worthy of consideration....Read more
Very insightful and readable....Read more
26 customers mention content, 23 positive, 3 negative
Interesting, but basically self-serving. The author presents himself as more important than his theories.Read more
...This was an amazing book and, in my opinion, offers an excellent overview of heritability rates for different traits and genetics....Read more
...Must read book for those with enough years of life left to care!Read more
Worth reading but Plomin is way ahead of the real data....Read more
"Nature" sets the parameters and parenting doesn't matter so much - from leading researcher
While it isn;t new and has been braodly known...but society hasn;t been ready for this! The significance of genetics on ALL our psychological profile is greatly influenced by our genes....just like how we know our facial features and other physical attributes are - why would our brains not be? Identical twins (100% same DNA) raised together are approx 80% alike psychologically throughout their lifespan. identical twins raised apart are 70% alike - despite their parents and environment being totally different. These studies involved hundreds of twins - the most reliable results in all of psychology! You will learn a lot from this book. There is no other to consider first on this topic.
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2026
- Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2026Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
While it isn;t new and has been braodly known...but society hasn;t been ready for this! The significance of genetics on ALL our psychological profile is greatly influenced by our genes....just like how we know our facial features and other physical attributes are - why would our brains not be? Identical twins (100% same DNA) raised together are approx 80% alike psychologically throughout their lifespan. identical twins raised apart are 70% alike - despite their parents and environment being totally different. These studies involved hundreds of twins - the most reliable results in all of psychology! You will learn a lot from this book. There is no other to consider first on this topic.
"Nature" sets the parameters and parenting doesn't matter so much - from leading researcher
Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2026
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Top reviews from other countries
- MartaReviewed in Spain on August 5, 2019
It takes a bit of pressure off parents.
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
