Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Heritability01:06

Heritability

750
Heritability is a statistical concept that measures the degree to which genetic differences among individuals contribute to trait variations within a population. It is a fundamental idea in genetics, often prone to misinterpretation. Heritability is expressed as a percentage, reflecting the proportion of variation in a specific trait across a population that can be linked to genetic differences. However, it's important to understand that heritability does not determine how "genetic"...
750
Pedigree Analysis01:35

Pedigree Analysis

90.4K
Overview
90.4K
Inheritance01:25

Inheritance

1.8K
Gregor Mendel's pioneering work on the principles of inheritance fundamentally transformed our understanding of how traits are transmitted from generation to generation. His experiments with pea plants laid the groundwork for the discovery of genes, discrete units within organisms that control heredity.
Each gene exists in pairs, and the combination of these genes from both parents forms an individual's genotype. This genotype is a blueprint of potential traits. Examples of genotype...
1.8K
Law of Segregation01:49

Law of Segregation

79.4K
When crossing pea plants, Mendel noticed that one of the parental traits would sometimes disappear in the first generation of offspring, called the F1 generation, and could reappear in the next generation (F2). He concluded that one of the traits must be dominant over the other, thereby causing masking of one trait in the F1 generation. When he crossed the F1 plants, he found that 75% of the offspring in the F2 generation had the dominant phenotype, while 25% had the recessive phenotype.
79.4K
Probability Laws01:49

Probability Laws

44.7K
Overview
44.7K
Genetic Lingo01:11

Genetic Lingo

116.6K
Overview
116.6K

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Components of evolutionary psychology are falsifiable, but does that make it a good theory? Commentary on Costello et al. (2026).

The American psychologist·2026
Same author

L-β-aminoisobutyric acid (L-BAIBA) in combination with voluntary wheel running exercise enhances musculoskeletal properties in middle-age male mice.

Aging·2025
Same author

Introduction to the Special Issue on Developmental Plasticity in Early Human Development.

Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies·2025
Same author

Minding the gap: a sex difference in young infants' mental rotation through thirty degrees of arc.

Frontiers in psychology·2024
Same author

How do babies come to know what babies know?

The Behavioral and brain sciences·2024
Same author

On the evolution of epigenetics via exaptation: A developmental systems perspective.

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences·2023
Same journal

Functional Neural Architecture of Working Memory in Musicians: An ALE Meta-Analysis and Review.

Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science·2026
Same journal

Collective Memory in Animals.

Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science·2026
Same journal

What Counts as an Environment in Memory Research? Conceptualizing Environment Across Memory Traditions.

Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science·2026
Same journal

Origins and Evolution of Imagination, From Australopithecus to Modern-Day Deep Learning.

Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science·2026
Same journal

Multilevel Perceptual-Motor Coupling: From Action Understanding to Execution.

Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science·2026
Same journal

Hope in Early Childhood: Novel Methodology for Measuring Hope in 5- and 6-Year-Olds.

Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 11, 2026

Navigating MARRVEL, a Web-Based Tool that Integrates Human Genomics and Model Organism Genetics Information
09:37

Navigating MARRVEL, a Web-Based Tool that Integrates Human Genomics and Model Organism Genetics Information

Published on: August 15, 2019

10.6K

The heritability fallacy.

David S Moore1, David Shenk2

  • 1Pitzer College and Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA, USA.

Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. Cognitive Science
|December 2, 2016
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Heritability measures in human behavioral genetics are misleading. They do not indicate genetic inherence or the causes of traits, causing significant public misunderstanding of human development.

More Related Videos

Stable Isotope In-Vivo Labeling for Mass-Spectrometry Identification of Paternal Metabolites Transferred from Sperm to Oocyte During Fertilization
05:55

Stable Isotope In-Vivo Labeling for Mass-Spectrometry Identification of Paternal Metabolites Transferred from Sperm to Oocyte During Fertilization

Published on: June 17, 2025

931
High-throughput Screening for Protein-based Inheritance in S. cerevisiae
08:12

High-throughput Screening for Protein-based Inheritance in S. cerevisiae

Published on: August 8, 2017

6.8K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Mar 11, 2026

Navigating MARRVEL, a Web-Based Tool that Integrates Human Genomics and Model Organism Genetics Information
09:37

Navigating MARRVEL, a Web-Based Tool that Integrates Human Genomics and Model Organism Genetics Information

Published on: August 15, 2019

10.6K
Stable Isotope In-Vivo Labeling for Mass-Spectrometry Identification of Paternal Metabolites Transferred from Sperm to Oocyte During Fertilization
05:55

Stable Isotope In-Vivo Labeling for Mass-Spectrometry Identification of Paternal Metabolites Transferred from Sperm to Oocyte During Fertilization

Published on: June 17, 2025

931
High-throughput Screening for Protein-based Inheritance in S. cerevisiae
08:12

High-throughput Screening for Protein-based Inheritance in S. cerevisiae

Published on: August 8, 2017

6.8K

Area of Science:

  • Human Behavioral Genetics
  • Cognitive Science

Background:

  • The term "heritability" is widely misunderstood in human behavioral genetics.
  • Current definitions misrepresent the genetic contribution to trait development.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To critically evaluate the scientific utility and public interpretation of "heritability."
  • To highlight the damaging impact of the term on understanding human development.

Main Methods:

  • Conceptual analysis of the term "heritability" in scientific literature.
  • Review of common interpretations versus scientific definitions.

Main Results:

  • Heritability measures do not quantify genetic inherence or causal factors for traits.
  • Existing knowledge of genetic influence on all human traits renders heritability measures of limited value.
  • The term "heritability" is scientifically imprecise and causes significant public confusion.

Conclusions:

  • The continued use of "heritability" in human behavioral genetics is scientifically damaging.
  • The term hinders accurate public understanding of how individual traits and identities develop.
  • Re-evaluation and clearer communication regarding genetic and environmental influences are necessary.