“No Two
Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality”

by Judith Rich Harrris

What’s the Big Idea?

It’s not your upbringing that makes you what you are,
nor your genes. Rather it’s the  things that happen to you  -
often  very tiny, random
things. Hence even identical twins, raised together, may develop entirely
different personalities simply because, as Harris puts it: “ a neuron zigs rather than zags, one twin
has a better position in the uterus, one
twin falls down the stairs or contracts a virus…”

Harris’s theory also accounts for how these
little blips send personalities off on their different trajectories. The human
brain, she contends, has three distinct systems: the “relationship
system”., which work’s out who’s who in society, the
“socialisation  system”
which works out what’s what, and the “status system” which
works out what the person him/herself is like.  The book describes how these systems
interact to ensure that every human being is unique.

SO What’s New?

“No Two Alike”  follows Harris’s previous
book: “The Nurture Assumption” which challenged  the old idea that children are moulded
mainly by their home environment.
She dissected
mountains of studies to show that children’s characters are
shaped more by their interactions with their peers than with their parents. The
book got a big
spin from the fact that it came from Harris – a disabled
housewife on a mission - rather than an established academic with a grant. She
was widely celebrated as a feisty little David who took on the Goliaths of
academia at their own game, and triumphed.

“No Two Alike” continues this heroic theme.
“The little lady from New
Jersey”, as Harris calls herself, is endlessly
vanquishing academic heavyweights who seek to dismiss her  work. Apart from being an outsider,
their animosity, she suggests, is because her idea is shockingly, and subversively , original..

But is it? Harris claims to be offering an entirely new
theory of personality. In fact it is new only in  that it gives more weight than is
usual to a certain type of environmental influence – small, random
events. However, the hpotentially massive effect of
such blips is already well recognised  by  brain scientists. They know only too
well how a blood clot the size of a pinhead or even a single moment of terrible
fear can utterly transform a person. The only places unenlightened by this  are a
few  unswept
corners of social science departments. The people Harris is battling with here
are not Goliaths but dinosaurs.

How Reader-Friendly is it?

Harris presents the book as a sort of science-thriller, with
herself as a detective probing the mystery of human individualism. The first
few chapters dispense of what she calls “red herrings”  the culprits, such as genes and
family, which are usually held to account for our idiosyncrasies.  The idea is to keep you hanging on
for the denouement, but is more likely to have you jumping off before you get
to the point.

Boffin Rating.:

Harris has none of the normal qualifications for writing
such a book. In order to make sure it is taken seriously she  has therefore worked far harder
at it than you might expect of a person who has already  secured readers’ confidence  by a string of letters after their name
and a fancy job description.
If she says she has been through the figures, believe me, she has.