Genes make us who we are, says 2020 psychology winner

A behavioral geneticist who found that DNA is the primary force shaping our personalities has won the 2020 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Psychology.

Robert Plomin, research professor at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London, developed his prize-winning idea based on 45 years of psychological studies in the United States and United Kingdom. His findings have significantly changed how scientists view the factors that define us as individuals.

Plomin’s theory is that genetics influence how we work with the world around us, a finding he calls the “nature of nurture.”