The author revisits their belief in genetic determinism, presenting evidence that environmental factors, especially in divorce, have significant non-genetic effects on children's outcomes. Longer summary

The post discusses the author's initial belief in the genetic determinism thesis from 'The Nurture Assumption', which argues that parenting has little effect on children's outcomes compared to genetics. The author then presents evidence from divorce studies that challenge this view, showing that environmental factors, particularly family conflict, do have significant effects on children. The post reviews several studies that disentangle genetic and environmental effects of divorce, concluding that there are indeed non-genetic negative impacts of divorce on children. The author acknowledges being wrong about shared environment effects being negligible and suggests that short-term environmental impacts can have long-lasting consequences. Shorter summary