Intelligence - by Nature or by Nurture?

It does seem like the general perception is that intelligence is by nature, i.e. one is either born with the "intelligent genes" or not. However, things can hardly be further from the truth. This perception is actually quite a self-fulfilling prophecy. People who believe they have the "intelligent genes" will go on learning more, expanding their brains and become better while those who don't, will tend to stay stagnated, unwilling to make a move since nothing seem to be able to change their predicament.

Apart from that, education has gotten quite formalised in many places, whereby students rarely read topics outside of the syllabus given in school. Adults also do not read as much as they should to expand their horizon. This general lack of reading means that the brain lacks stimulation to continue growing and hence limit the development of intelligence.

At this point, it should be obvious that we believe nurture plays a greater role in deciding people's intelligence. There are scientific evidences suggesting that children growing up in a more stimulating environments develop better mental ability. These children can do better in tests and are more creative in finding solutions.

In addition to that, the mind is very much malleable. So, by feeding the mind with information and questions to process, the mind will then develop accordingly to cope with the work load. This is like how we build our muscles in gyms. When we exercise our brain cells, they develop further, allowing for more complicated thinking and information storage.

These are some of the activities that we can adopt to increase our intelligence:

• Reading, especially read from different fields
• Exercise, allowing for better blood circulation, bringing oxygen, water and nutrient up to your brain
• Engage in enriching discussions, stimulating your brain cells
• Get enough and proper sleep to allow your brain to repair the "damages" done during waking hours
• Avoid brain cell killing activities such as smoking and binge drinking

As a conclusion, intelligence is strongly influenced by nurture and hence one should maintain a healthy lifestyle to avoid becoming less gifted.