Friendliness, genetics and foxes

[Howard]

I wanted to share this video as I think it could lead to an interesting conversation.

Tame vs friendliness

Genetics vs environment

Animal psychology vs human psychology

After watching this video, I was amazed that there is a difference between taming an animal and have a friendly animal. It leaves surprised also on how much genetics can play a role in it. It makes me wonder how much genentics play a role in human psychology.

[Forest Spirit]

We are animals btw😊

But yes it makes sense to me that there is a difference between environment-induced "friendliness" (aka being tamed) and an innate friendliness. Simple example for humans: someone who is genuinly friendly vs someone who was taught to be friendly (at least in certain situations) but has to put effort into it. For me it has partially to do with the environment you grow up in, partially with your personality. If personality traits are genetic... Idk, not sure about that

[Purple Red Panda]

I'd like to reach an 'elite level of friendliness'.

[Guest]

There's been a lot of research on how much of our personality and behaviour is due to genetics and how much is "nurture". I don't remember the statistics (and am too lazy to google scholar it) but the answer is generally that far more of our personality is down to genetics than anyone really likes to admit. And the majority of the rest in "non-shared environment" i.e. the environment that siblings don't share (friends, interests, chance occurrences), so parenting doesn't have near as much impact on who we become than anyone thinks.

 

If you have an interest on the subject "Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are" by Robert Ploomin is a great book.

[Abigail Rose]

I'd rather go live in the wild where the animals are. Being tamed by social constructs and then imposing that on more animals for our amusement is the most disgusting aspect of humans. Not one animal species does this, except ours. This is why we can't have nice things. 

[Karst]

There's actually a genetic disorder that causes people who have it to be more sociable and trusting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_syndrome

Some biologists think that similar genetic differences might be involved with how domesticated animals act differently from their wild cousins (dogs vs. wolves, et cetera).

[Anthracite_Impreza]

There's a link between domesticity and colour/pattern too; usually the first "unnatural" pattern to emerge in any domestic species is piebald. The dog coat pattern dork in me just needed to point that out.