Influences: Heredity and Environment · CDP

Which of the following is a limitation when interpreting high heritability estimates of traits such as intelligence or height?

  1. High heritability means the surrounding environment can have no measurable effect on the trait
  2. Heritability applies to populations, not individuals; environment still matters
  3. Heritability is fixed and identical across every possible population
  4. Heritability means traits are immutable
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Correct answer: Heritability applies to populations, not individuals; environment still matters

Heritability describes variance in a trait across a population; it does not imply that environment cannot change individual outcomes or that the trait is predetermined for every individual.

Difficulty: Medium Question 17 of 21

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