So no, it's not all in the genes, but what isn't in the genes isn't in the family environment either. It can't… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
Parents provide their children with genes as well as an environment, so the fact that talkative parents have kids with good language… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
“The only people who should be allowed to govern countries with nuclear weapons are mothers, those who are still breastfeeding their babies."--Tsutomu… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
The idea that children are passive repositories to be shaped by their parents has been massively overstated. A child's peer group is… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
“During a famine, the father and stepmother of Hansel and Gretel abandon them in a forest so that they will starve to… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
“The technological efficiency of daughter-proofing a pregnancy may make it seem as if the girl shortage is a problem of modernity, but… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
The idea that boys want to sleep with their mothers strikes most men as the silliest thing they have ever heard. Obviously,… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
For example, parents who talk a lot to their children have kids with better language skills, parents who spank have children who… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
Forcing modern speakers of English to not - whoops, not to split an infinitive because it isn't done in Latin makes about as much… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
Consistent style prevents presentation from getting in the way of content. — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
The supposedly immaterial soul, we now know, can be bisected with a knife, altered by chemicals, started or stopped by electricity, and extinguished by… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
I've never argued that humans are massively hot-wired. What I was trying to point out was that you can't understand how we learn unless… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
As many political writers have pointed out, commitment to political equality is not an empirical claim that people are clones. — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
Since violence is largely a male pastime, cultures that empower women tend to move away from the glorification of violence and are less likely… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
When it comes to explaining human thought and behavior, the possibility that heredity plays any role at all still has the power to shock.… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
Morality is not just any old topic in psychology but close to our conception of the meaning of life. Moral goodness is what gives… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
“The biblical story of the binding of Isaac shows that human sacrifice was far from unthinkable in the 1st millennium BCE. The Israelites boasted… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
Part of the bargain of being alive is that one takes a chance at dying a premature or painful death, be it from violence,… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
In fact, without a specification of a creature's goals, the very idea of intelligence is meaningless. A toadstool could be given a genius award… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
“The obvious cure for the tragic shortcomings of human intuition in a high-tech world is education. And this offers priorities for educational policy: to… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
