Blueprint or blank slate? Nature-nurture beliefs and parenting

    14 January 2025

    LISS 2024. Authors: Tim Wienand, Hans van Kippersluis, Niels Rietveld (Erasmus University Rotterdam, School of Economics)

    While it is nowadays well established that both “nature” and “nurture” are important determinants of child development, people differ in their beliefs about the relative importance of genetic and environmental influences. In this project, we study how these beliefs shape parenting. Given the significant impact of parental investments on children’s outcomes later in life, the study promotes our understanding of a key source of unequal opportunities among children. We test the causal effect of nature-nurture beliefs using a randomized information experiment and we develop innovative survey vignettes to measure parenting-related attitudes and parents’ educational aspirations for their children.

    Picture by Yunus Tuğ on Unsplash.