Interview with Dr. Marshall Duke, Dept. of Psychology, Emory University
1. Who do you consider to be a genius (intellectual, athletic, or artistic) and why?
I would consider E.O. Wilson to be a genius. E.O. Wilson is a person who knows things well beyond his discipline, biology. He knows history, philosophy, economics, etc. He can stand back and look at all of his knowledge and integrate it.
The quality of genius is the capacity to integrate knowledge, and then communicate this integrated understanding.
If somebody has a great talent as a tennis player and never plays tennis, nobody knows he has this capacity.
Michaelangelo was a painter, sculptor, and philosopher. He changed craft to creation.
Zornberg (Jewish theologian) is a woman (non-rabbi) who is well educated and began to read deeply into philosophy and Jewish literature, and has the ability to step away and look on what she’s read and write about it.
Michael Jordan is a genius in physical intelligence.
Oprah Winfrey is a genius interpersonally.
Andrew Weil solved Fermat's last theorem which has been around for 800 years, and unable to be solved until he got it.
People with musical intelligence – Mozart, Bob Dylan who has made an impact across generations with his music.
Bill Gates is also a genius.
2. At what point do you separate mastery of a field and actual genius? In other words, what do geniuses have that distinguishes them from other people who are also talented in the specific area of interest?
Separation occurs when a person can step back and look at his or her field in relation to other fields.
Geniuses are participant observers, they are involved in the field itself, but can stand back and see connections to other fields and communicate them.
3. According to our research thus far, we know that both genetics and environment affect the degree to which a person is gifted in a certain field. From your experience, do you think the “natural gift” of being a genius can be purely genetic or purely environmental?
Yeah, I think it would be hard not to agree with it. There must be the inherent capacity to learn, and then exposure and interaction to stimuli. It is a requirement that parents and teachers recognize that capacity and feed it. Very often, the school system squashes it rather than feeding it. A 6th or 7th grade student who questions the teacher may seem insubordinate, but he may go on to question the whole paradigm.
I don’t think everyone has the capacity to become a genius, and I don’t think that everyone who has the capacity actually becomes a genius.
4. To what extent can the environment change the outcome of genetics and vice versa? Can one override the other? Do environment or genetics have more force than the other?
Some people have certain brain systems that allow them to do certain things better.
Certain things go together, like music, math and science. You can’t make someone a genius. You can educate a child and bring him or her to her natural capacity, but to be a genius, there has to be something else there. Nature puts us on a road, and environment can put you on one side of the road or the other, but it does have a direction.
Can I direct a person into a genius? I can move them back and forth on the road, but there are many geniuses who are not directed. Lots of smart people get lost.
There is a subtle pressure in this country not to rise above the rest. It is said that it is a good thing to do, but we really want everyone to be the same.
5. Is there a specific part of the brain that is most associated with genius? Is there a physical difference in brain structure between an genius and a typical person? Is there any truth to the past theories that stated that the bigger the brain the smarter you are?
The frontal lobe is going to have to be well functioning because that is where reasoning and intellect are located.
Right brain – important in global view
Cerebellum – athletics
Temporal lobe – musical intelligence
Occipital lobe – artistic
Different parts of the brain are important in different forms of genius. There is something with smoothness of transmission through the neurological pathway; a genius may have some physical connection that most people lack.
Connections such as hearing a sound and automatically seeing an image with it.
There may be some things, but we’re way, way far from finding what those things are.
There is no association between brain size and intelligence.
6. Are there specific genes that seem to be related with a genius?
No knowledge in this particular area.
7. Is there any common childhood development by parents or life pattern that seems to be most associated with genius?
Look at Freud’s parents, they had seven children, and he was the first-born. He was born in the amniotic sac, which was believed to mean that the child was destined for greatness, and he was treated as such. There were two rooms for the children in the house, Freud got one room and the latter six children shared the other. He was the only one of the children to receive a formal education. This treatment did not make him a genius, but it fostered it.
Same-old, every day kids connect with something. A coach talks to his team, and there is one kid who understands what the coach is saying, and is able to carry out the athletic plan successfully after hearing it once. He gave the same speech to the whole team, but there was that one child who got the message. Research has proven that parents are produced by their own children.
Parents act differently toward each child in the family, therefore, parents are shaped by their children to the same degree that children are shaped by their parents. A child picks up the violin and begins to experiment. Parents who want to foster the genius would get the child an instructor, other parents would say “put that thing away, you’re driving me crazy!” which would squash the genius