The collection of genes known as Steven Pinker made the point most forcibly in How The Mind Works, where he explained his own decision not to have children - which apparently runs counter to the demands of evolution - and says that if his genes don't like it, "they can take a running jump." He was married in 1980 to Nancy Etcoff, the clinical psychologist, neuropsychologist, and author of the recent book Survival of the Prettiest. The marriage lasted 12 years. He married his second wife, Ilavenil Subbiah, a Malaysian-born cognitive psychologist turned scientific illustrator and graphic artist, in 1995. She illustrated his two most recent books.

He stands by his earlier decision not to have children: "We still have no children - for the same reason that most people don't have 13 or 14 children, though they could surely afford them, and by a common misreading of Darwin, ought to want that many. We just take that decision to its logical extreme."

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