Question: Why are some people more clever than others?

Joe Bathelt answered on 10 Nov 2016:

This is a very important question, but, unfortunately, there are no definitive answers at the moment. Variation in thinking skills is in part determined by genetics. However, genetics only explains some proportion of the variation – you are more similar in your thinking skills to your parents than to a randomly selected person, but you are still quite different. Another contribution probably comes from your experience of the world. If you solve a lot of difficult problems, then you become better at doing it. Our current thinking is that genetics and experience interact. So, there could be very small differences in thinking skills in babies, but over time, these differences are amplified because they lead to a different experience. For example, babies who are born with more interest in speech would listen more to spoken words and would be quicker to acquire language.