[hacst]

That's what I tried to capture with the "at the population level" restriction. Plomin was quite clear that for the individual all bets are off so sorry if it sounded like the environment couldn't still screw you over (it definitely can). The part about inter-group differences is worth emphasizing and I should have done so.

That did not reduce my surprise about the things stated in the book though. If statements it contains like that after correcting for genetics "the most important environmental factors, such as our families and schools, account for less than 5 percent of the differences between us in our mental health or how well we did at school" and "Genetics accounts for 50 per cent of psychological differences, not just for mental health and school achievement, but for all psychological traits, from personality to mental abilities" are true, then I definitely consider that as going against "common knowledge" and "common sense". Definitely blew my mind.

Thanks for the links. Totally missed that it was discussed here before.