Cu putin inainte de aparitia primei carti a lui Judith Rich Harris, carte care a intrigat, a scandalizat si a tulburat o serie de specialisti in psihologia dezvoltarii (si nu doar pe ei), Malcolm Gladwell, pe atunci inca jurnalist la The New Yorker, i-a dedicat un articol si, pentru asta, s-a documentat serios, vorbind, printre altii, si cu Peter Gray, autorul unui manual de psihologie faimos ajuns, astazi, cred ca la a sasea editie:
“If developmental psychology were an enterprise conducted by children, there is no question that peer relationships would be at the top of the list,” Peter Gray, a psychologist at Boston College, told me. “But because it is conducted by adults we tend, egocentrically, to believe that it is the relationship between us and our children that is important. But just look at them. Whom do they want to please? Are they wearing the kind of clothing that other kids are wearing or the kind that their parents are wearing? If the other kids are speaking another way, whose language are they going to learn? And, from an evolutionary perspective, whom should they be paying attention to? Their parents–the members of the previous generation–or their peers, who will be their future mates and future collaborators? It would more adaptive for them to be better attuned to the nuances of their peers’ behavior. That just makes a lot of sense.”