The concept of regression to the mean explains why children of parents who are at the extreme ends of a normal (bell-curve) distribution for a phenotype are usually closer to the population average for the phenotype.
- Regression toward the mean simply means that the likelihood of the subsequent random occurrence being less extreme after an extreme random event is low.
- Francis Galton was the first to describe regression toward the mean.
- He carried out a study in 1886 to determine the relationship between children's heights and their parents.
- After adjusting for the height disparity between men and women (by multiplying each woman's height by 1.08), he measured the heights of 928 adult children and the matching 205 parent couples and discovered something intriguing.
- The average height of a kid's parents was typically higher than that of the child, but less extreme (closer to the mean).
- Therefore, the child was frequently shorter if the parents were particularly tall. The child tended to be very tall if the parents were short.
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