The use of "nurture" as a synonym for "environment" is based on the assumption that what influences children's development, apart from their genes, is the way their parents bring them up.

Only after rearing two children of my own and coauthoring three editions of a college textbook on child development did I begin to question this assumption.

[5]Harris' most innovative idea was to look outside the family and to point at the peer group as an important shaper of the child's psyche.

Children identify with their classmates and playmates rather than their parents, modify their behavior to fit with the peer group, and this ultimately helps to form the character of the individual.

[6] The psychologist Jerome Kagan argues that Harris "ignores some important facts, ones that are inconsistent with this book's conclusions".

[8] Harris herself, however, went on to most vividly reject the notion in particular that The Nurture Assumption will encourage parents to neglect or mistreat their children.

[9] She maintains that parents will continue to treat their children well "for the same reason you are nice to your friends and your partner, even though you have no hopes of molding their character.