PUBLIC TALK: Toward a Multifactorial Theory of Expertise: Beyond Born vs. Made

The debate over the origins of individual differences in expertise has raged on for over a century in psychology. The “nature” view holds that expertise reflects “innate talent”—that is, genetically-determined abilities. The “nurture” view counters that if talent even exists, its effects on ultimate performance are negligible. While no scientist takes seriously a strict nature view of expertise, the nurture view has gained tremendous popularity over the past several decades. I will argue that, despite its popularity, this environmentalist view is inadequate to account for the evidence concerning individual differences in expertise. More generally, I will argue that the nature vs. nurture debate in research on expertise is over—or certainly should be, as it has been in other areas of psychological research for decades. I will close by describing a multifactorial model for research on the nature and nurture of expertise.