Pnewsology

The week’s news with a dash of psychology!

Jane Ogden (Professor in Health Psychology, Emeritus; email janeogden509@gmail.com; based on a conversation with James Cannon at Radio Surrey; 8.40 am 31/10/25)

News for week ending 31/10/25

We often talk about ‘accidents of birth’ and this week’s news handed these out in their droves.  The deadly hurricane Melissa devasted Jamaica and Cuba with poor residents having their homes wrecked and having to flee to safety.  Just bad luck because that’s where they were born.  I’m from Chingford in North London.  We don’t have hurricanes there (yet) and my childhood home still stands 60 years after my birth in the top bedroom.  We also watched as Presidents Trump and Xi revised their tariffs in exchange for rare earth minerals and Andrew, formerly known as Prince was stripped of his final title.  All randomly born into money and power and living in the top echelons of society just because of who their parents and their parents’ parents were.  Our days of Lords and serfs are way in the past, the US prides itself on the American dream and a classless society and China is run by the communist party.  But here we are with accidents of birth still driving our news and very little sign of it changing.

We also debate ‘nature vs nurture’ and weigh up which is the biggest driver in who we are.  But in this week’s news, it seems to me that these accidents also show that it doesn’t matter what the real drivers are but what people think they are.  And those with power and money are not only at the top of the ladder but also think that they deserve to be there.  They love the nature side of the argument and absolutely believe that they are better people who are better positioned at the top than others due to their better genes, better families and better biology. 

But its not just them that love the nature argument.  We’ve had a poor man carry out a DNA test only to find out his dad is not who he thought it was, social media trolls abusing Brigitte Macron about her sex at birth and a young woman claiming she’s Madeleine McCann.  A biological basis to who we are seems to win hands down when it works for us.

But what about nurture?  Accidents of birth throw us into places of danger not safety which shape who we become.  The rich and the powerful surround themselves with those who faun, collude and enable as they become entitled and arrogant.  And, to be fair, not everyone born into privilege just revels in their position.  Some use it to change the world), some do actually work really hard and some with money just choose to give it away. Nurture clearly has its way.

Believing in biology works great for those at the top and helps them justify their worth as they cling onto their inherited gains.  But they need to recognise they also got there through a good dose of nurture by the sycophants around them and that biology may not be so great when you turn out to be the genetic offspring of someone who has been disgraced.

All opinions are those of Jane Ogden.