Genes or Experience: Popular and Educated Opinion

1-in-4 Americans believe that it is genes rather than experiences that are the biggest determiner of personality.

Does that change with years of schooling? Not as much as I expected.

We can safely ignore the results of the respondents who had less than 8 years of schooling. The sample sizes are too small. (There were only 12 respondents in the "7 years of schooling" camp. The other, shorter lengths of schooling had even fewer). Above that, the ratio largely moves in a range from 1-in-5 to a little over 1-in-4. The outliers can be found at the ends of the range of education. People with only high school education are more likely to believe in genes. People with post-graduate education, less so. People with 19 years were the least likely to believe in the power of genes. Tenured radicals. Retirement looms.

Source: GSS