How Genes and Education Mixed in East and West Germany

In Germany, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, something interesting happened with genes and education. Scientists looked at how genes linked to education behaved differently in East and West Germany around the time of reunification. They used a special tool, a polygenic index, to study this. This tool was made from earlier research on how genes affect education in democratic countries. The study included 1, 930 people aged 25 to 85 from a German research group. Before reunification, the link between genes and education was similar in both East and West Germany. But after reunification, this link became stronger in East Germany. This means that genes started to play a bigger role in education there. The researchers checked if this was just a general trend, but it wasn't. They did this by looking at genes linked to height, and those didn't show the same pattern. So, the change was specific to education. Why did this happen? One idea is that when there are more opportunities, genes have a bigger impact on education. This makes sense because in a more open society, people can choose their paths based on their abilities and interests. But this is just one study. The researchers say more work is needed to confirm these findings. It's an important topic because it shows how genes and environment can mix in different ways.