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Eugine_Nier comments on [LINK] Loss of local knowledge affecting intellectual trends - Less Wrong
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Well, as Konkvistador pointed out, what happens to a pregnant woman does influence the offspring. As for what she was thinking or looking at, especially if it caused her to be flooded with adrenaline or other hormones, that it could effect the baby certainly doesn't strike me as absurd. (Do you know of any research in this area?)
Sure, that sort of effect could maybe occur. But the versions in classical cultures aren't that. For example, the referenced example in Genesis has Jacob apparently using speckled sticks to make the the offspring of the cattle become speckled. Similarly, some cultures believed that if a woman was thinking of another man when she conceived the child then the child would be more likely to look like the other man.
That almost sounds like the type of "polite fiction" that developed to avoid dealing with the consequences of embarrassing affairs.