Health and Medicine
PUBLISHED
Up to 13 percent of your personality may be shaped by genetic factors, new research has found. Through their effect on your character, these same genes also appear to influence your chances of becoming a criminal and might even help determine where you choose to live once you hit middle-age.
While scientists have long suspected a connection between DNA and personality, teasing out the exact relationship between the two has proven extremely challenging.
The authors of a new study therefore scanned the genomes of 46 different groups of people, each consisting of between 611,037 and 1.14 million individuals, and looked for correlations between particular genetic variants and the so-called Big Five personality traits – which are extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience.
In total, the researchers identified 1,260 lead genetic variants linked with personality traits, 824 of which had never previously been recognized. Initial findings suggest that these variants collectively control between five and nine percent of a person’s mix of these personality traits, although the authors suggest that this could rise to 13 percent when only the most reliable measures are included.
Importantly, the researchers were also able to examine the genomes of 50,725 close relatives, which enabled them to confirm that these effects really were caused by genetics rather than a shared living environment and upbringing.
Despite these findings, the authors insist that “even direct genetic effects do not determine an individual’s personality,” as numerous other factors play a role in shaping a person’s character. However, possessing certain genetic variants does increase an individual’s chances of expressing particular personality traits, which can, in turn, shape their life-course.
For instance, results showed that people with a high genetic propensity for neuroticism and a low genetic propensity for agreeableness are more likely to run away from home, be suspended from school and even pull a gun or a knife on someone. On the other hand, genes linked to conscientiousness may reduce a person’s likelihood to do drugs.
These same genetic variants also seem to influence the way others see us. For instance, people with a lower genetic propensity for neuroticism and a higher propensity for extraversion, agreeableness and openness to experience are more often perceived as having an attractive personality.
And while DNA is by no means a crystal ball, the data did reveal some surprising connections between genetics and the types of lives people end up living.
For example, genetic profiles associated with openness to experience were found to be predictive of living in cosmopolitan professional areas by the age of 50, while genes linked to conscientiousness raise a person’s chances of living in the suburbs once they cross that mid-life threshold.
The study is published in the journal Nature.
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