Judith Rich Harris, "whose theories about child development gained wide attention, even though most academics rejected her view that parents have less impact than they think they do," died December 29, the New York Times reported. She was 80. Harris, who was writing college textbooks on child development "when she realized she didn't believe what she was telling readers about why children turn out the way they do," had her own theory "that children are influenced more by their genes and peers than by their parents."
An article she wrote for an academic journal won a prestigious prize from the American Psychological Association and was subsequently turned into the book The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do (1998). It became a bestseller and caused a sensation in the news media. She updated her theory in No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality (2006).
Noting that "she was so damn smart," Harvard psychologist and author Steven Pinker said, "Her gift was she could understand the technical aspects of behavioral genetics and at the same time was a psychologist and a very sharp observer of human behavior."
Harris's theories "ran smack into the academic establishment, which at first ignored and then criticized her work and bemoaned her lack of credentials," the Times wrote, adding: "She was that unusual student who had been kicked out of Harvard while working on her doctorate. The letter dismissing her in 1960 [was] signed by George A. Miller, the acting chairman of Harvard's psychology department.... In an irony that even Dr. Miller would come to appreciate, the prestigious award that Ms. Harris received in 1998 from the American Psychological Association was named for Dr. Miller."