Everyone has different hobbies or tendencies, things they like more than others. What causes someone to be interested in narwhals or origami or the color blue? Is it nature? Nurture? Life experience?
different experiences. We are living computers that take in information as presented which in turn creates paths of interest to pursue.
If you were brought up around music then it is more likely you will pursue it on some level versus someone who was not.
But sometimes your interests have NOTHING to do with the way you were raised. Me, for example; my family had nothing to do with horses. One of my very first words was pony. My parents said if there was a horse on TV I was mesmerized. The first time I was put on a distant relative’s horse at about 2, I cried when they made me get off.
It wasn’t just a passing little girl & horses thing; I am now closing in on 53 and am still horse obsessed. I have always wondered what it was in my nature that drove this?
Isn’t nurture and life experience the same thing?
And can anyone seriously think it can be “nature,” i.e. genetic?
Seems to me you were exposed to horses as a child. A bit of chicken and egg thing going on as to why you found horses interesting from first exposure but it appears there was also a favorable feedback loop involved.
I can believe there could be a genetic component to at least some interests.
What about those studies of identical twins raised apart, who turn out to have similarities (including similar interests)? Is it all just coincidence or confirmation bias, or do people really have genetic predispositions to certain interests?
Considering the mind is just a product of the brain which is a product of evolution, I have no problem believing that genes play a huge part in peoples’ tastes and preferences.
As Thudlow Boink points out, studies of identical twins support this. From the Minnesota Twin Family Study:
Great question. Just speaking for myself my hobbies, passions, interests whatever you want to call it tend to run about a decade before I start tapering off and become passionate about something else. I find when I become interested in something it is not unlike falling in love, I get a pay back! My creatibe juices start to flow, I feed off of my accomplishments and the learning curve seems to go through the roof. I believe how we are exposed to something initialy may have some effect on how we view that same thing in the furure. My current hobby is making bows and arrows primitive style from wood, I have been doing it for about 16 years now and am just as apssionate about it as the day I started. I have probably made upwards of 3,000 bows now and am still learning.
To answer your question briefly I believe we have interests because while we are pursuing that particular interest a pleasurable amount of some natural chemical is flowing through our bodies telling us to keep going.
It’s not just people. Dogs love to chase stuff, or to play tug-of-war and such. I’d point to cats’ love of scratching, but I think that might be a grooming thing. But surely, most pet owners can tell you about their pet’s like and dislikes.
Because hobbies cost money, whereas interests are free.
Twin studies have been the subject of much criticism for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that they have too few subjects, rarely find twins from widely disparate environments, and have had their findings wildly overblown by the media.
Nobody has ever identified any meaning for a gene that controls an interest. We have no idea what genes they might be, how such a gene would express itself, where in the brain interests are created, or any mechanism that can say anything about the process at all.
Sorry. Until scientists find a shred of scientific explanation otherwise I’m going to stick with my contention that interests are a product of life experiences, and not genetic in nature.
Not really; my interest in anything equine started BEFORE I was ever introduced to a live horse. Initially the interest was just visual, but after that first ‘ride’, it changed. I wanted to touch, to pet, to smell, to feed. My parents did everything they could to discourage this. They were both afraid of horses.
My love for horses came from somewhere entirely different, that I will never quite understand.
I don’t know why this would be so hard to grok. Artistic and musical abilities are dependent on specific characteristics of the brain. Some of them set at birth (or earlier), some laid down with “nurturing”. How well these things come together hinges on one’s genetic endowments. Not completely, but they are important.
Google “Williams Syndrome”. People with this chromosomal disorder tend to have high music and verbal abilities, in addition to similar deficits.
I think “interests” are expressions of personality traits, which are indeed genetic. However the expression of these traits would depend on opportunity and exposure.
I was the same as the OP, with horses. I remember throwing a tantrum because I was not allowed to go pet a horse in a parade – I came up to about the horse’s knee. My interest was strongly discouraged, and my academic talents strongly encouraged, but I was only interested in farming and animal training. I spent many years trying to reconcile my parents’ expectations with my own interests before I gave up and just did what I wanted. I did ride horses for five years or so.
Because horses are an extremely impractical interest unless you have a lot of land and/or extra money, I managed over time to transition to dogs and smaller livestock. I still love horses however, and would have them if I could.
I believe that my interest in horses and other animals is genetic and very deep. I have always possessed it. It isn’t a whim, like collecting bottlecaps, it is a major part of my persona. Neither of my parents have the slightest interest in animals, quite the reverse, but my grandmother was supportive, perhaps I got it from her.
you were exposed to them previously via TV, books, and toys.
Ability isn’t the same as interest, but it would affect interests. Like just about everything else it will be a combination of experience and genetics.
While there may well be genetic underpinnings to one’s personality, it cannot be said that there are “genes for” any particular aspect of personality. Granted, genes may be responsible for the fact that we even have personalities, but I wouldn’t lay any more than that at the genetic altar without a lot more (and better conducted) research than we have currently.
I realize this is a very small case study I am reffering to but. I have a son who I did not know was my son until he was close to 40 yrs old. One of those cases where my best friend started dating this girl right after her and I broke up. He raised the boy as if it were his own and never told me anything about it.
In my first conversation with the boy ( still not knowing I was his father) we talked on the phone for close to two hours, his facination with woodworking, gardening, primitive type skills almost mirrors mine. I know these are common hobbies but my particular interest in the hobbies is less mainstream and he seemed to have the same take on them as I did which I found a bit unusual as I had never encountered anyone outside of specific forums on line that shared my style of interest. As far as I know he still does not know I am his biological father.
You mean people are motivated by their motives? Are they also influenced to action by things that influence them to action? Those are lines from The Standup Economist. I approve of The Standup Economist(TSE).
Per TSE, the third principle of economics proves that people are stupid. But the fourth principle (people respond to incentives, i.e. are motivated by their motives) proves that people aren’t that stupid.
I am therefore going to submit that the reason people have interests is that they’re not that stupid. The OP may want something more than that, but for me this covers it.
Here’s a little fable that might explain why people have interests;
One day in the not-so-distant future the first thinking machine was built. It was very smart but completely non-human. The designer told it 'Make your existence as effcicient as possible!" and it did so, by switching itself off.
This kept happening with each new design until one day the designer managed to give his new design of machine a set of interests and hobbies. The new machine didn’t switch itself off, because it had something to enjoy.
It isn’t enough to simply live; an intelligent entity must have a reason to live, even if that reason is the collection of old beer-mats.