My favorite non-fiction books are the ones that make you question things you took for granted and compel you to see the world in a new way. And if they do it with wit, style, and a bit of verbal punchiness, so much the better.
The Nurture Assumption succeeds on all counts. It questions the pervasive premise that the primary determinant of one’s personality is the way you were raised by your parents.
Marshalling the data from numerous studies, but interpreting them in new ways, Harris argues that the peer group of the child is the major environmental influence on adult personality, while the parents’ contribution is primarily genetic.