So the answer to 'What determined how I turned out, compared to everyone else on the planet?', the answer surely has to by primarily about external factors, and our internal drive or will is relegated a long way down the list. Even after this we know various predictors, similarly outside (or mostly outside) of our control, that exert their effects on how our lives turn out: IQ is one, but we could throw in personality traits, mental health, height, attractiveness, etc. On cursory examination the contours of how our lives are turned out are set by factors outside our control, merely by where we are born and who our parents are. The precise determinants of IQ remain controversial, it is known to be highly heritable, and the 'non-genetic' factors of IQ proposed (early childhood environment, intra-uterine environment, etc.) are similarly outside one's locus of control. One robust predictor of success (grades in school, job performance, income, and so on) is IQ. Even conditional on being born in the right country (and to the right class), success may still not be a matter of personal volition.Include that, and the two factors explain 80% of variance in income. Another external factor we could put in would be parental class. Of course, the 'remaining' 40% might not be solely internal factors either.The main predictor of your income is country of birth, it is thought to explain around 60% of the variance: not only more important than any other factor, but more important than all other factors put together. someone in the bottom 10% of the US population by income is still richer than two thirds of the population - more here). Global income inequality is marked (e.g.Here are some reasons in favour of an external view:(3) Do people, in general, get what their actions deserve, or is it generally thanks to matters outside their control? Why the external view is right Yet internal versus external is not just a matter of taste, but a factual claim about the world. Internals seem to do better at life, pace obvious confounding: maybe instead of internals doing better by virtue of their internal locus of control, being successful inclines you to attribute success internal factors and so become more internal, and vice versa if you fail.(2) If you don't think the relationship is wholly confounded, then there is some prudential benefit for becoming more internal. (Call them 'internals' and 'externals' for short). People who tend to think their own attitudes or efforts can control what happens to them are said to have an internal locus of control, those who don't, an external locus of control. The second assigns the outcome to some external factor like bad luck.(1) They have a similar theme: the first statement suggests that an outcome (misfortune, respect, or a good job) for a person are the result of their own action or volition. Getting a good job mainly depends on being in the right place at the right time.Becoming a success is a matter of hard work luck has little or nothing to do with it.Unfortunately, an individual's worth often passes unrecognized no matter how hard he tries. In the long run, people get the respect they deserve in this world.Many of the unhappy things in people's lives are partly due to bad luck.People's misfortunes result from the mistakes they make.What do you think about these pairs of statements?
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