To put it charitably that&#x27;s not the case, the majority of the latest studies show that if you are born to a &quot;low-IQ&quot; (less than 90) then genetics play a huge role (I personally have no quarrel with classifying IQ of 90 or lower as a mental deficiency, but i might have been more clearer on that), however for children who are born to average and above-average parents genetics seems to play a minor role compared to environmental factors especially during the early-adulthood development phases (or exactly before your &quot;IQ&quot; seems to stabilize).<p>Here is an example of a study which is one of the largest (if not the largest) studies that were conducted in this field (over 11,000 individuals) which seem to point to that exact conclusion.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;pss.sagepub.com&#x2F;content&#x2F;early&#x2F;2013&#x2F;07&#x2F;01&#x2F;0956797612473119" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;pss.sagepub.com&#x2F;content&#x2F;early&#x2F;2013&#x2F;07&#x2F;01&#x2F;095679761247...</a><p>Overall it seems that if you born with a higher &quot;genetic&quot; IQ than the environment will have a much bigger influence on the final outcome (average to highly gifted) while if you are born with a (considerably) below average genetic IQ potential then it wont.<p>edit:<p>Can&#x27;t find a non-paywall for the research but there is a high level synopsis and analysis of it for journalists.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;journalistsresource.org&#x2F;studies&#x2F;society&#x2F;education&#x2F;nature-nurture-intellectual-development-children" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;journalistsresource.org&#x2F;studies&#x2F;society&#x2F;education&#x2F;nat...</a>