Judith Rich Harris, 1938–2018

I'm sorry to report that psychology researcher and writer Judith Rich Harris has died. She was responsible for several of the key textbooks in child psychology, and later wrote two books that pulled together all she had synthesized from the field to question the role of parenting in how children turn out, The Nurture Assumption and No Two Alike.

I highly recommend both books as eye-openers (I've mentioned The Nurture Assumption a few times here and here, but I never got around to writing about the equally good No Two Alike).

According to her website, she had for decades "suffered from a chronic autoimmune disorder called mixed connective tissue disease — an "overlap" combination of lupus and systemic sclerosis. This disorder can affect virtually any organ in the body. One of its more serious complications is a heart-lung condition known as pulmonary arterial hypertension." Despite this, she had an extremely productive career, mainly from her home rather than any academic institution.

The Nurture Assumption contains one of my favorite anecdotes about child-rearing:

[There was] a pair of reared-apart twins.... identical twins separated at infancy; they grew up in different adoptive homes. One became a concert pianist, talented enough to perform as a soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra. The other cannot play a note.

Since these women have the same genes, the disparity must be due to a difference in their environments. Sure enough, one of the adoptive mothers was a music teacher who gave piano lessons in her home. The parents who adopted the other twin were not musical at all.

Only it was the nonmusical parents who produced the concert pianist and the piano teacher whose daughter cannot play a note (page 309).

Thanks for your work, Ms. Harris.