hereditarianism

British

/ həˌrɛdɪˈtɛərɪəˌnɪzəm /

noun

psychol a school of thought that emphasizes the influence of heredity in the determination of human behaviour Compare environmentalism

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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The 1920s and 1930s were the heyday of hereditarianism, the belief that heredity decisively shaped human nature and difference.

From Scientific American

Crude hereditarianism often re-emerges after major advances in biological knowledge: Darwinism begat eugenics; Mendelism begat worse eugenics.

From Nature

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023