学業成績:受遺伝影響是環境影響的２倍

Recently the Mainichi News on-line reported the following:

学業成績:遺伝の影響は環境の２倍　英で双子を調査

毎日新聞　2013年12月16日　17時58分（最終更新　12月16日　18時20分）

　【ロンドン小倉孝保】成績は環境よりも遺伝で決まる−−ロンドン大キングスカレッジの研究者らが、中学卒業時の学業成績に対する遺伝子の及ぼす影響は環境要因の２倍であると発表した。

　調査は英国で過去３年間に１６歳になった双子約１万１０００人が対象。義務教育修了時に受験する中等教育修了試験（ＧＣＳＥ）での「一卵性の双子」と「二卵性の双子」の成績（英語、理科、数学）を比較した。双子は一卵性、二卵性ともに学校や家庭の環境はほぼ同じと考えられる一方、遺伝子は一卵性が完全に一致するのに対し二卵性は別の遺伝子を持つ。一卵性と二卵性の双子を比較することで、成績に対する遺伝子の影響を割り出した。

　その結果、全体では遺伝子の成績に与える影響は５８％で、環境（家庭・学校）の影響は２９％。残り１３％はそれぞれの個性による違いと考えられるという。科目別では、遺伝子の影響は理科５８％、数学５５％、英語５２％で、科学分野で遺伝の影響がより大きい可能性がある。調査メンバー（計８人）のシェイクシャフト氏は、「これまで以上に個人に合わせた教育が必要」と話している。

(試譯文)

   Learning results were decided by heredity rather than the environment: the researchers of the great King’s College London announced that the influence of the gene on learning, based on the performance at the graduation in the junior high school, was twice that of the environmental factors.

About 11,000 twins in Britain who had became 16 years old in the past three years were the objects of this investigation. The results (English, science, mathematics) of "Twins of dizygotic" and "twins of monozygotic" were compared at the time when they took the secondary education graduation examination (GCSE) which marked their completion of the compulsory education. It was generally believed that the environment at school and home was almost the same in both monozygotic and dizygotic twins; yet monozygotic twins had exactly matching gene while dizygotic twins had another gene. The influence of the gene on results was deduced by comparing monozygotic and dizygotic twins.

In the result, as a whole, the influence of the gene was 58%, and the influence of the environment (at home and at school) was 29%. It was said that the remaining 13% was considered to be the difference arising from individual’s personality. The influence of the gene broken down into individual subjects would be 58% in science, 55% in mathematics, and 52% in English; and the influence of heredity in the domain of science should be greater. Shakeshaft, a member of this investigation (a total of eight people) was saying that "more than ever, it is important that an individual is given the suitable education".

This research proves that nature is more important then nurture.