Drew Burney

So it really is that interaction between genes and environment.

So the genetics matter more or less based on the environment.

Yes.

Okay.

So I know that's a little bit of an abstract idea to wrap your head around.

But when you see this, especially in this self-help industry, they'll say 40 to 60% is terrible.

They call it half, right?

So 50% of who you are is determined-

They don't even say that.

I've seen it.

I've seen it before.

I get that too.

But even the more nuanced version where they say, okay, so half of your personality or who you are is determined by your genetics.

But you know what?

Turn lemons into lemonade.

And that means half isn't right.

That's not what the heritability is saying at all.

It's just saying this is our best estimate from behavioral genetics.

When you start doing molecular genetics and you start looking at what they call genome-wide association studies, doesn't matter what those are, but when you start doing those, so far we've only found somewhere between 5% and 15%.

of personality is heritable in those studies.