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The idea that children are passive repositories to be shaped by their parents has been massively overstated. A child's peer group is a far greater determinant of its development and achievements than parental aspiration.

Steven Pinker

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Steven Pinker
Age: 70
Born: 1954
Born: September 18
Anthropologist
Linguist
Non-Fiction Writer
Philosopher
Psychologist
University Teacher
Montreal
Quebec
Steven Arthur Pinker
Parents
Shaped
Parent
Peers
Repositories
Child
Passive
Overstated
Greater
Aspiration
Determinant
Idea
Achievement
Massively
Ideas
Group
Peer
Children
Development
Parental
Groups
Achievements

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I like ice hockey. No one is ever going to ask me to write about that as a metaphor for life.
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Since violence is largely a male pastime, cultures that empower women tend to move away from the glorification of violence and are less likely to breed dangerous subcultures of rootless young men.
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If you aren't just brought up in your tribe but interact with other people either directly or vicariously, through journalism and literature, you see what life is like from other points of view and are less likely to demonize them or dehumanize others and more likely to empathize with them.
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If the cartoon were completely accurate, though, life would be a cacophany of spoinks.
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All our behaviours are a result of neurophysiological activity in the brain. There is no reason to believe there is any magic going on.
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We can make fun of hockey fans, but someone who enjoys Homer is indulging the same kind of vicarious bloodlust.
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