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Glite Dictionary
🧬 Believing in heredity 🧬 A heredity believer
hereditarian

hereditarian

9.3
Believing that people's traits come mainly from their genes
  • adjective
  • /həˈrɛdɪˌtɛriən/
translation icon : hereditaria
  • Further, maturationism itself is overlaid on a strongly hereditarian outlook.
  • hereditarian theory
  • hereditarian theories of IQ

Examples

  • Many scientists today hold a hereditarian view, believing that genetics play a crucial role in shaping intelligence.

  • With this, as I noted above, came a heavily hereditarian cast of mind.

    Academic text (1993)

  • Interestingly, it appears that this exact argument about the greater needs of the intelligent can be found in the views put forward by some of the champions of the hereditarian intelligence movement (see Kamin, 1974).

    Academic text (1994)

  • Gould also presented the history of IQ testing, not only citing cultural biases in the tests but addressing hereditarian theories of IQ that, unfortunately, still haven't quite faded away.

    Academic text (1992)

  • The debate between nature and nurture often centers around hereditarian beliefs about our traits.

  • Some argue that a hereditarian outlook can overshadow the importance of environmental influences in development.

Surface Forms

hereditarian positive

Morphology

hereditarian = heredity (transparent) = heredity + arian

Formed from the noun 'heredity' plus the productive suffix '-arian' meaning 'relating to' or 'supporting', so the adjective meaning is directly predictable from the base.

Etymology

Hereditarian comes from heredity ('inheritance' or the traits we get from our parents) plus the ending -arian (a kind of belief or support, as in vegetarian). So to be hereditarian as an adjective is to say you think traits or behaviour are mostly passed down from parents.