Innatism is the belief that most of the human personality can be determined by genes. This ideology is dangerous,
especially when it claims to be scientific. The present study investigates conceptions of 1060 students from Estonia
and France related to genetic determinism of some human behaviours. Factors taken into account included students’
religion, gender, parents’ education level and the school curriculum. The data analysis used w2 for single
comparisons but also multivariate analyses as between-class analysis and the Monte Carlo test to differentiate samples.
The difference in the answers from students of the two countries is strongly significant, Estonian students’
answers being more innatist and linked with more intolerant attitudes than French ones, although in both cases the
majority is tolerant. For each country, very few factors differentiate students: only gender in France for the
question on sexism and schools in Estonia. These findings show how sociocultural context is important for
questions containing values interacting with scientific knowledge. The interpretation of the results infers
significantly different trends among Estonian and French students’ conceptions about the determinism of human
behaviours and performances.

• Comparison of French and Estonian students’ conceptions in genetic determinism of human behaviours

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