Newly identified genetic variants can together predict about 11 percent of the educational attainment among people of European ancestry, according to a massive genome-wide association study published yesterday (July 23) in Nature Genetics. The genetic influence is too small to make meaningful predictions or gene-based interventions at the individual level, the authors say. Nevertheless, it suggests that genes—not solely social factors—play a considerable role in whether children thrive in school.
“Education needs to start taking these developments very seriously,” the University of York’s Kathryn Asbury, who was not involved in the study, tells The Atlantic. “Any factor that can explain 11 percent of the variance in how a child performs in school is very significant and needs to be carefully explored and understood.” By comparison, household income has been shown to explain 7 percent of that variance.
Many of the more than 1,200 new variants identified in the study of ...
