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[nightfly]

Like do you think say Ted Bundy, had he grown up with a lot more nurturing he actually could have been a great husband/father, or do you think no matter what he was destined to be the crazy man he was?

 

[FunkMiller]

Both apply. Some things are hardwired from birth, some things are learned behaviours. One can dramatically affect the other. Any study of a human’s psychology must interrogate both aspects to get an accurate reading.

Edit: On Bundy, his extreme psychopathy was something he was born with, as is the case with most, if not all, serial killers. He displayed psychopathic tendencies from a very early age. His grandfather was a volent man, so that probably contributed to Bundy's outlook on the world. Mind you, that's what Bundy says, and anything he ever said has to be taken with a pinch of salt.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Both apply. Some things are hardwired from birth, some things are learned behaviours. One can dramatically affect the other. Any study of a human’s psychology must interrogate both aspects to get an accurate reading.

Agreed.

Think of it like a common issue like numbers. Some people are naturally good at it, and can even do it accurately in their head. Some people cant do shit even if you handcuffed them to a chair doing math problems 24/7 with a calculator.

Every brain is wired different.

 

[Artoris]

​

nature creates hardware

nurture creates software

more or less

 

[Scotty W]

Like do you think say Ted Bundy, had he grown up with a lot more nurturing he actually could have been a great husband/father, or do you think no matter what he was destined to be the crazy man he was?

Bundy’s father was his grandfather, right?

Nature nurtures nature. Nurture natures nurture.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

It’s nurture all the way. There are enormous number of examples with people succeeding despite the way they were born , equal amount of people that failed despite being destined for success because “their mind was not in the right place”.

 

[Tams]

There certainly seem to be many predispositions that everyone has in some way and to some degree.

I've spent enough time around going children to see it start to show from a young age.

Some people just get some stuff, or can imagine something that others can't anywhere near as clearly, sometimes at all.

Nurture helps, and can turn talent into genius. It can also turn ineptness into mediocrity it even being decent at something. But from my experience you can't go beyond your natural ability. It's just we don't know exactly where that is and can't really measure it.

I can swim very well, mostly because I just can. Just as I can descend a mountain like a mountain goat (well, as close as a human can get; that goats are crazy).

But ask me to understand music, or learn another language, and I just fall apart. Both I've practised from a very young age, but I just don't seem to have the ability.

 

[Soodanim]

I find the question an odd one, because it seems like it's asking for an opinion on something that isn't open for interpretation. Everyone else has covered it already, it's a mix of both.

As for Bundy, we'll never know if it would have been possible to nurture more strongly than nature in that instance.

 

[INC]

I truly believe "some" people are just born pre broken, and nature nurture makes no difference.

You can have identical twins separated at birth, in different environments, and still grow up to have almost identical lives (job they chose, women they marry etc etc)

Some are products of their environment......so there's no real right answer.

Bit of both, seems the most likely

 

[gaming_again]

Culture rules most things, imo. It’s powerful enough to smother all but the most potent aspects of somebody’s nature.

Slavery and violence is my go-to for this. Try finding a person today who thinks slavery is fine. Imagine asking somebody the same question 200 years ago. There is nothing different about the genetics of these two people at all.

And violence… people would go to village squares to watch other people have their limbs torn off as entertainment. And it wasn’t too long ago that people would start the day with a hanging. Now we have age ratings warning us off pretend gore.

It’s why I always roll my eyes when somebody says the culture wars are fake. Of course they’re not. Culture rules everything and it’s always been a battlefield.

 

[Wildebeest]

In reality, things are chaotic. People act like they are very wise and knowing about how things are when they look back, but the reality is if they were sent back to change things, they would be clueless the moment their intricate theories broke down.

 

[GymWolf]

First post got it right, they are both important but you can be a son of a bitch even with the best family in the world.

Family is not the only thing that forge a character.

 

[thefool]

Both play a part but what separates us from animals is empathy. That can make us suppress some of our nature or bad habits acquired. Im unsure if you can develop it, but its evident some people have evolved (or kept that trait) to not be empathic, which you could say its a feature of our nature.
A lot of bad deeds are committed because this subset of the population knows the rest of us is empathic and will not punish them accordingly (for instance, recidivism is a very interesting behavioral phenomenon).

 

[Pegasus Actual]

I used to be big on "nature" but I'm leaning towards like a 70/30 split in favor of "nurture" these days.

 

[Azurro]

Nobody is a tabula rassa, people are born with a personality, but you can definitely influence its development.