No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality

319 Pages·2007·1.47 MB·English

by  Judith Rich Harris

Further praise for No Two Alike
“Judith Rich Harris calls No Two Alike a ‘scientific detective story.’ The mystery
is why people—even identical twins who grow up in the same home with the
same genes—end up with different personalities. The detective is Harris herself,
…who takes on the academic establishment armed only with a sharp mind and
an Internet connection. Harris the author scrupulously follows clues; Harris the
protagonist drives the story forward through force of character.”
—William Saletan, New York Times Book Review
“With neither a doctorate nor a university behind her, Harris more than
compensates with intelligence, dogged research, lively writing, a love of
mystery, and droll humor…. Harris makes behavioral genetics and evolutionary
psychology enjoyable and accessible to general readers as well as scholars.
Essential for general and academic libraries.”
—E. James Lieberman, Library Journal, starred review
“Harris’s writing is highly entertaining, which will help readers stick with her
through the elaboration of a fairly complex theory.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Harris delivers an answer (and, yes, it’s sure to be controversial), but it’s the
quest itself that will prove most fascinating for general readers, who will marvel
at the step-by-step accumulation of facts, as the author marshals her argument by
adeptly juggling a wide array of tools, from new theories of evolutionary
psychology to behavioral genetics and linguistics.”
—David Pitt, Booklist
“There are many books about ‘human nature,’ but very few on the important
question of why humans differ from one another. Judy Harris’s book is
terrifically well written and interesting.”
—Robert Plomin, author of Nature and Nurture: An Introduction to Human
Behavioral Genetics
“As a parent, as a social psychologist, and as a human being, I was enlightened
and enthralled. Harris is an extraordinary thinker and writer: wise, witty, learned,
scientifically rigorous, and absolutely fearless. Contemporary psychology has no
sharper critic—and no better friend.”
—Joshua Aronson, editor of Improving Academic Achievement: Impact of
Psychological Factors on Education
“Readers interested in evolutionary psychology and human development will
find a lot to ponder here.”
—Science News
“Harris’s books are well worth reading for many reasons. With its roots in old-
fashioned curiosity and wide learning, her exposition is a tour de force of
arresting anecdotes, lively reportage, and lucid analysis.”
—Amy L. Wax, Policy Review
“When this book arrived, I pretty much sat down and read it from cover to cover
—hardly my typical reaction to a nonfiction book. No Two Alike is a deeply
impressive accomplishment.”
—Paul Bloom, author of Descartes’ Baby: How the Science of Child
Development Explains What Makes Us Human
“There are lots and lots of goodies, including fascinating studies of memory and
learning and observations of chimpanzees, chickens, paper wasps and ants.
Harris shows why relationship and socialisation skills don’t necessarily go
together; why bullies don’t have low self-esteem, as normally proposed; why
height and earnings are related; and so on…. Her work is enjoyably well worth
reading and, in this reviewer at least, stimulated much thought.”
—Denise Winn, Human Givens Journal
“Harris is not a professional scientist and isn’t afraid of ranging widely across
disciplines in search of an answer. She writes with breezy good humour too, as
she attempts to explain variations in personality that can’t be attributed to
variations in genes.”
—Scotland on Sunday
“Why are we the way we are? Why do identical twins, raised in the same house
by the same parents, turn out to have such different personalities? For years,
psychologists and other professionals thought they had the answers, but this
grandmotherly, iconoclastic outsider may force us to revise our thinking about
these basic questions…. Mrs. Harris is an amazing woman…. As an independent
scholar, she took a broader view of the issue than was possible for many of the
certified experts. Perhaps that is why she has been able to see the forest, as well
as the trees.”
—Peter Pettus, New York Sun
“Harris makes waves again with a new theory of personality to explain why no
two people are alike…. Expect some lively rebuttals.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“I enjoyed reading this book; Harris has a conversational and engaging style that
nonetheless manages to convey quite a bit of information clearly….The evidence
Harris produces to support [her theory of personality] is not only persuasive but
fascinating to read.”
—Mary Hrovat, Thinking Meat (thinkingmeat.com)
“Judith Harris has produced a top-notch social science text. The book takes a
fresh look at research from behavioral genetics, developmental psychology,
sociology, personality, and social psychology to explain, in new ways, the non-
genetic causes of individual human differences…. A well-researched and
thought-provoking analysis of fundamental issues in psychology.”
—Eric Lang, Science Books & Films
“The chapters on gene-environment interaction and birth order differences
within families contain some fascinating detective work…. I very much enjoyed
reading this book.”
—Dorret Boomsma, Nature Genetics
“Marshaling an impressive range of evidence—social psychology, anthropology,
genetics, neuroscience, and, crucially, evolutionary biology—Harris demolishes
entrenched orthodoxies and opens new avenues. This book will intrigue, amuse,
and greatly enlighten you, whatever your personality.”
—Helena Cronin, author of The Ant and the Peacock: Altruism and Sexual
Selection from Darwin to Today
“Why are identical twins reared together so different when they share all of their
genes and all of the environment? Why were the Iranian conjoined twins Laleh
and Ladan so different when their genes and environments seemed all but
identical? No Two Alike, this wonderful new book by Judith Rich Harris, takes
on this most difficult of questions…. And Harris, a devotee of mystery writing,
is a great storyteller…. This is a very important book.”
—John Mullen, Metapsychology
“A truly engaging, moderately challenging take on what makes people tick.
[Harris is] a plucky, ridiculously informed writer who brings potentially droll
scientific studies to life, and synthesizes and picks holes in the most influential
psychology studies relating to personality in the past several decades. The result
is a new theory that covers all bases and explains why we are the way we are.”
—Karla Starr, Willamette Week
Also by Judith Rich Harris
The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do
No Two Alike
Human Nature and Human Individuality
JUDITH RICH HARRIS
W. W. NORTON & COMPANY
New York • London
To Steven Pinker
Copyright © 2006 by Judith Rich Harris All rights reserved
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write
to Permissions, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York,
NY 10110
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Harris, Judith Rich.
No two alike: human nature and human individuality / by Judith Rich Harris.
—1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN: 978-0-39332971-1
1. Individual differences. 2. Individuality. 3. Personality. I. Title.
BF697.H3765 2006
155.2—dc22
2005025837
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110
www.wwnorton.com
W. W. Norton & Company, Ltd., Castle House, 75/76 Wells Street, London
W1T 3QT
Contents
Preface

1. An Appreciation of Differences
2. That Damn Rectangle
3. Monkey Business
4. Birth Order and Other Environmental Differences Within the Family
5. The Person and the Situation
6. The Modular Mind
7. The Relationship System
8. The Socialization System
9. The Status System
10. Denouement

Notes
References