Environment: How others shape our identity and our choices

Source: Maimonides on the power of social influence

It is human nature for a person to be drawn in their views and actions after their friends and companions, and to follow the customs of the people of their land. Therefore, a person must associate with the righteous and sit constantly among the wise, so as to learn from their actions, and distance themselves from the wicked who walk in darkness, so as not to learn from their actions.

(Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Character Traits, Chapter 6, Halacha 1; Image: Belle in the village, from 'Beauty and the Beast')

Explanation: Human ecology: Personality as a weighted average

After dealing with the physical environment, Maimonides turns to human ecology—the human environment. He establishes a psychological fact: there is no isolated "I." Man is a political animal (zoon politikon, in Aristotle's words), and personality is a weighted average of one's environment. If you do not distance yourself from a bad neighbor, you will quickly become just another local. The only true free choice is the choice of environment; once chosen, it will shape us.

Perspective: When environment becomes destiny: From Lot to Zelig

The myth of the "self-made man" is not entirely true; no one is shaped in a vacuum. Environment is destiny. Lot thought he would survive spiritually in Sodom, but his daughters reenacted the city's ways inside the cave (Genesis 19). King Joash was righteous only as long as Jehoiada the Priest stood beside him; the moment his mentor died, Joash turned to idol worship (2 Chronicles 24:17–18). In Woody Allen's film Zelig (1983), the protagonist, Zelig, changes colors, accents, and identities to match whoever is standing beside him. If you are surrounded by cynicism, you will become a cynic. Human ecology is no less important than green ecology.

Going Deeper: Epigenetics: When the environment is written into the body

Epigenetics ("beyond genetics") is the field of biology dealing with changes in gene function that do not involve alterations to the DNA sequence itself. Today, it is widely accepted that nature and nurture cannot be separated. Stress, nutrition, and trauma can turn switches on or off across our DNA—changes that can even be passed down through generations. The environment is literally written into the biology of the body. Someone who lives in a city or a village, in the mountains or a valley, on a noisy street or a quiet one, in hot weather or cold, often chose these places partly due to genetics, yet ultimately these places feed back and influence genetics in return. After all, "Man is nothing but the mold of his native landscape" (Shaul Tchernichovsky, 1925).

Culture: Between drifting and standing firm: Can one swim against the current?

William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies (1954) shows how a group of well-mannered British schoolboys turns into a savage, murderous tribe the moment their restraining environment disappears. The book shatters the illusion that morality is innate and fixed; morality is a function of the environment and the laws within which we live. Various scientists and thinkers have argued similarly—such as Milgram, who prompted electric shocks in a famous experiment, or Hannah Arendt, who argued that anyone, under certain conditions, could become a Nazi ("the banality of evil"). Yet against this, we know there were Righteous Among the Nations even during the Holocaust, and in Milgram's experiment, more than a third of the participants refused to administer electric shocks to their fellow human beings. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has" (Margaret Mead).