What I mean is, it's not clear that those traits are sufficiently genetic in basis for natural selection to occur. There may be more of a cultural incentive to encourage those traits.
Of course there's a strong genetic component. For an extreme demonstration, no amount of cultural pressure is going to prompt the emergence of these attributes in a population of watermelons or earthworms.
I agree that you need to code for some level of intelligence in the first place. But I think you need to go further and show that there is genetically-driven variation in those traits among humans. Otherwise it may be that the variation is due to socialisation or epigenetic factors.
Comments
Are these things that can be naturally selected for?
You stopped reading just shy of your answer:
What I mean is, it's not clear that those traits are sufficiently genetic in basis for natural selection to occur. There may be more of a cultural incentive to encourage those traits.
Of course there's a strong genetic component. For an extreme demonstration, no amount of cultural pressure is going to prompt the emergence of these attributes in a population of watermelons or earthworms.
I agree that you need to code for some level of intelligence in the first place. But I think you need to go further and show that there is genetically-driven variation in those traits among humans. Otherwise it may be that the variation is due to socialisation or epigenetic factors.