# What are your thoughts on genetic memory **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 22, 2013, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-thoughts-on-genetic-memory/653598 "2013-03-22T01:33:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-thoughts-on-genetic-memory/653598/21 "2013-03-22T20:25:41Z")
Monarch butterflies are the ones that amaze me the most. They leave their hibernation roosts, and head north. There they die after spawning the first of three short lived generations of offspring. The fourth generation is long lived, and somehow returns to exactly the same trees as their great-great-grandparents. That is a shitload of genetic coding. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-thoughts-on-genetic-memory/653598/22 "2013-03-23T01:05:42Z")
Used to think it was all just weird coincidence and woo. Then I was reunited with the child I surrendered to adoption, 28 yrs later. You can count me a true believer now. Hard to ignore when you see it with your own eyes. ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-thoughts-on-genetic-memory/653598/23 "2013-03-23T14:44:11Z")
My son make a particular and unusual hand movement that my dad also made. My dad died when my son was about 1 1/2 years old, and they did not interact very much at all, both being quite ill at the time, so it is unlikely that my son learned this movement from my dad. This similarity of movement was striking to me, but it also occurs to me that my son does not do much else that recalls my dad, either physically or otherwise, so I think it’s just a fluke. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-thoughts-on-genetic-memory/653598/24 "2013-03-23T20:14:08Z")
My “fluke” comment was meant to be a joke based on an old experiment. It wasn’t until too late to edit that I remembered that it was poorly related to the subject. I think the verdict is stil out on this one. From my limited understanding it involves so many factors that we haven’t gotten there yet in genetic research. Sure seems to be enough anecdotal evidence to raise the question. ---
**Author:** ![colander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@colander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colander)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-thoughts-on-genetic-memory/653598/25 "2013-03-23T22:06:25Z")
Most of the stories we’ve heard don’t rule out the possibility that these are _learned_ behaviors and preferences passed from parent to child across generations. This would certainly appear to be a more supportable explanation. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-thoughts-on-genetic-memory/653598/26 "2013-03-23T23:19:13Z")
> [@colander](#): > > Most of the stories we’ve heard don’t rule out the possibility that these are _learned_ behaviors and preferences passed from parent to child across generations. This would certainly appear to be a more supportable explanation. Not exactly what the OP is talking about, but this reminds me of a study of the Jewish population in NYC in the 1940s that I read about. It showed that many of the mannerisms that had become a common stereotype were actually specific to only one generation. It’s like they were all copying themselves. The mannerisms largely did not carry over into the next generations. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-thoughts-on-genetic-memory/653598/27 "2013-03-24T15:39:13Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > I think it’s confusing two separate things, genetics and memory. > > And I think genetics is awesome! My 2 year old daughter makes a “mad face” that is hilariously like her great-grandmother, who died right after my daughter was born. It is awesome, and it is because genetics means they have similar bone structure and facial features. Some behaviors and dispositions are found in family groups because they have roots in genetics. I don’t believe in genetic memory but similar genetics certainly can have some odd outcomes. I used to be a fan of the motorsport Formula One and one thing that used to annoy me was one a driver got a race-seat because of who his dad was, I didn’t believe skill or speed could be handed down like that. Then one time I went to a Go-kart racing event with a large number of family and friends which lasted for most of a day. When the time-sheets were handed out at the end of the day they displayed fastest time for each driver and each drivers average lap time over the course of the day. The total spread of times was about six seconds between fastest and slowest driver and the times were detailed down to 1/100 ths of a second. Myself, my dad and my brother had average times equal to 1/100 th of a second, my dad and my brother had _exactly equal_ times. That made me revise my opinion on the genetic component of driving skill. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-thoughts-on-genetic-memory/653598/28 "2013-03-25T18:59:46Z")
[This](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehwFVgQ82ZY) is a pretty good documentary that touches on the subject. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-thoughts-on-genetic-memory/653598/29 "2013-03-25T20:22:39Z")
I will suppress my irritation long enough to point out that there is ALSO a difference between mannerisms and quirks of movement, which may be influenced by genetics, and freaking MEMORY. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-thoughts-on-genetic-memory/653598/30 "2013-03-25T21:52:43Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > Utter twaddle. Twaddle on the same level as reincarnation. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-thoughts-on-genetic-memory/653598.md?page=1)