Fancy yourself a bit of an Einstein? You can thank your mum for that.
According to new research, when it comes to IQ the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
The study, originally published on Psychology Spot, suggests that the genes that determine our intellect are inherited from our mothers. This is because they are located on the X chromosome, and since women carry two of them it makes it twice as likely that they’ll be responsible for passing their brainpower on to their kids.
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While the dad’s out there may laugh this off, the research proves it’s extremely unlikely that their smarts will impact their offspring.
“If that same gene is inherited from the father, it is deactivated,” the study reports.
But it’s not all doom and gloom for the dudes, as “other genes work the opposite,” and “are activated only if they come from the father.”
This theory was first investigated back in 1994 when the Medical Research Council Social and Public Health Sciences Unit surveyed 12,686 young people between the ages of 14 and 22.
The factor found to be the best predictor of intelligence? Their parent’s IQ.
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This article originally appeared on Women’s Health.
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