第４０回Online workshop報告（１２月３日）

＜Agenda＞

Silver Spoon and Golden Genes

A new Japanese slang, “Oya-gacha,” was nominated as one of the trendiest new buzzwords in 2021. This word comes from the fact that you cannot choose your own parents, much like you cannot choose your own capsule toy prize. Netizens often use the term in negative contexts, which has provoked controversy. Some showed sympathy, and others blamed it as an excuse for their undesirable life performance, insisting they could have covered it with hard work. The debate went viral when some claimed that the people criticizing them were those who got “SR(*1)” in Oya-gacha.

Generally, some factors in Oya-gacha are intelligence, appearance, affluence, and education policy, which can be categorized into heredity and environment. According to twin studies in behavioural genetics(*2), however, it turned out that environmental differences do not significantly affect children’s future as people believe.

The twin studies uncovered that heritability(*3) of height and weight is over 90% (15-year-old), and that of athletic ability and intelligence is roughly 67% and 50%, respectively. Here, a higher number does not necessarily mean that the traits will be similar to those of the parents. The higher the number, the more effort is required to change the traits. If you look at the world’s top athletes, you will admit that innate traits explain their differences from others. Even with the same physical strength and amount of effort in the same environment, not every MLB pitcher can throw 100 mph, and not every Jamaican sprinter can break 10 seconds barrier in 100 metres sprint.

Of course, there is room for the environment to make changes. Still, genetic factors will inevitably have a more substantial impact on our lives than people generally believe. Heredity might be like starting hands in poker.

<Vocabulary>

*1 SR: super rare

*2 behavioural genetics: a field of scientific research to investigate the nature and origins of individual differences in behaviour focusing on genetics composition and the environment, mostly based on twin studies.

*3 heritability: a measure of how well differences in people’s genes account for differences in their traits (0% to 100%).

<Questions>

From your personal experience, what are the areas where you can achieve more than average without much effort and areas where you cannot achieve more than average even with a lot of effort?

The media had controversial discussions on the term “Oya-gacha.”

What is your attitude toward this concept? How much do you think it determines the direction of people’s lives?

Behavioural genetics scientists built a common ground that family affluence makes no significant difference in their children’s social success as long as they are economically lower-middle class or above.

Do you think this idea is still true in today’s society? Share your group’s opinions and reasons at the end of the workshop.

<Reference>

『生まれが9割の世界をどう生きるか』-安藤寿康
https://www.sbcr.jp/product/4815615888/

Nominations revealed for Japan’s 2021 New Words and Buzzwords Awards – JAPANTODAY
https://japantoday.com/category/national/nominations-revealed-for-japan%E2%80%99s-2021-new-words-and-buzzwords-awards#:~:text=8.%20Oyagacha%20/%C2%A0****,world%E2%80%99s%20strongest%20warriors.

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