Chapers 10-12 Summary and Analysis

Summary: The third section of Social intelligence, Nurturing Nature, looks at the complex and highly debated relationship between a persons innate attributes, their genes, and their personal experience. Goleman doesn't chose a side on this hot-button issue, instead he uses neuroscience to show how both play in a role in the type of people we become. He does however trend away from the popular psychological opinion, as evidence by the first chapter in this section being called Genes Are Not Destiny. In this chapter Goleman makes the case that while are genetics play an obvious role in the type of person we are, they aren't the end all be all. Using a myriad of examples, he shows that environment, i.e. nurture, often plays a very crucial role in how certain genes evolve.

No one has perfect genetics, and...