Book Review: "The Blank Slate" by Stephen Pinker

Book Review: “The Blank Slate” by Stephen Pinker

This book is a well written survey of what is currently known about “Brain Science” and personality.  Written for the layman, it is very readable and presents a good overview of the different areas of current research.   Although accused of “superficiality” I find it was a good introduction for me to the current state of research.

There were two main conclusions that I found fascinating and important:

1) Your basic personality is inborn.  You are born with your personality already formed and your environment has little effect on your basic personality of likes, dislikes, and your own personal set of interests and behavior.

THIS IS THE ANSWER TO THE NATURE VERSUS NURTURE QUESTION.  Your personality is inborn and not created by your upbringing.  Your parents have very little influence on “who you are.”

How they proved this was genius.  Using the Briggs Meyer personality profile which yields a quantitative measure of personality on several different scales, or axis, of interest, researchers studied two different groups of adults.

A. In identical twins separated at birth, they found a much greater than average similarity of personality as adults.  Even though the twins had no environmental conditions the same during childhood, they had personalities that were statistically very similar.

B. In children adopted at birth and raised in the same home, they found no more similarity in personality as adults than total strangers.

The interpretation of these results is that the home environment had little real effect on the resulting personality of the adult.  In other words, NATURE is everything and NURTURE has little effect.

C. Using studies of immigrant children and language acquisition, they found that the environment of the “peer group” has some effect (5%) on the formation of personality as we are influenced by the personalities of our childhood friends.  But, the influence of parents on the resultant child’s personality is negligible (except for the genetic contribution of DNA).

2) Your political orientation is inborn.  You were born being either a Republican or Democrat, (Conservative or Liberal) and your life experience has little effect on your political decisions. 

They found that people tend to be “Novelty Seeking” or “Familiarity Seeking” when they are born.  “Novelty Seeking” children experience arousal of the sympathetic nervous system when they encounter new and unique environments or situations.  They seek the new and different.  “Familiarity Seeking” children have arousal of their sympathetic nervous system when they experience familiar surroundings and events.  These children like the predictable and known.  

This personality characteristic is constant through life for all people.

Therefore, Democrats tend to be “Novelty Seeking” adults that constantly want to improve the system.  In other words, their philosophy might be, “Let’s try something different and see if we can make it better.”   Republicans, on the other hand, tend to be “Familiarity Seeking” adults that think “It has worked well so far and we do not want to change anything,” or “Let’s keep the social system the way it was because we know how that works.”

Given this understanding, it is easy to see why our Democratic, or parliamentarian, form of Government seems to be at an impasse and not functional in today’s world.   That is because it is not functional.  The Conservatives and Liberals are not having the same discussion.  They do not have the same goals.  Their appeals to their opponents always fall on deaf ears, because their opponents do not share the same desires or motivations.

Political discussions rarely look at the underlying value systems and instead argue specifics without acknowledging this fundamental difference.  Parliamentary debate seems to be an exercise in futility because it does not address the underlying difference of intent of the participants.

In conclusion, this book “The Blank Slate” by Stephen Pinker is a fascinating book.  This review barely touches the surface and the book is filled with interesting facts, stories and conclusions.  If you have any interest in mind, behavior, and personality, you will want to read this book.

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Copyright©2015

William Schaeffer