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Nature vs. Nurture Shaping Human Behavior The debate between those who believe human beings are born with certain innate qualities and those who believe we are the product of our environment (Nature vs. Nurture) has raged for centuries. "For the better part of the 20th century, most literature supported the nurture side of the debate". Advocates of the ‘nurture’ theory emphasize the important role played by acquired and learned behavior from the environment. In support of this theory are several experiments such as Marler’s work on the development of bird song, which showed that within the same species of white crowned sparrows, there are regional variations in bird song (Halliday & Slater, 1983). This paper will look at how the knowledge of the field of genetics has caused the pendulum to swing back in the opposite direction (e.g.
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