Who we are and who we become may be in our genes, at least partially. A new study links a variety of gene variants to various personality traits and lifestyles. These findings displayed patterns across large demographics, though experiences and surroundings still play a pivotal role in individual development.
In your DNA
Over 1,000 gene variants are associated with personality, including more than 800 not previously linked to it, according to a study published in the journal Nature. These genetic variants also “partially predict mental and physical health, longevity, education, career paths and outcomes and even how people are perceived by close others,” said a release about the study. While scientists have known that a variety of factors, including DNA, could affect personality, the “challenge has been deciphering the specific pathways through which a genetic blueprint nudges the direction of a person’s life,” said The New York Times.
In order to analyze how genes affect personality, researchers had participants from 46 different cohorts provide DNA samples and fill out a questionnaire measuring the “Big Five” personality traits, which are “openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism,” said the release. These traits are “relatively stable and habitual differences in how people think, feel and act.” The data also included demographic and lifestyle information about the participants, allowing the researchers to “see links between personality traits, genetic variants and other parts of people’s lives as well,” said Time.
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For example, the variants linked to conscientiousness “were associated with being more active during the day while variants linked to openness to experience and extraversion were linked to being more of a night owl,” said the release. Those with variants associated with neuroticism tended to spend more time at hospitals. Scientists also analyzed fraternal twins and siblings, who are raised in the same surroundings, finding that “genetic effects on personality within families were almost identical to those found between unrelated people,” said ScienceAlert.
Nature vs. nurture
Of course, experiences can also shape personality. Genetic variants linked to openness “predicted that a person would move to more cosmopolitan neighborhoods,” but “living in those neighborhoods may reinforce and further shape that same trait,” said the release. Genes obviously “influence our personality predispositions,” Michel Nivard, a genetic epidemiologist at the University of Bristol and a senior author of the study, said to ScienceAlert. “But there are clearly also substantial environmental causes of personality, which collectively explain the majority of individual differences.”
Cultural differences and societal perception additionally affected the results of the study. Of the Big Five, “agreeableness proved the most difficult to analyze,” as researchers found “weaker genetic correlations across countries and evidence that the trait is less heritable than the others,” said El País. This could potentially be because “‘agreeable’ may not mean the same thing everywhere.” This study is the “first time genetics has made it possible to assess objectively whether two cultures are measuring the same thing when they use the same word.”
Ultimately, genetic differences only “account for only about 5 to 10% of personality variation among people,” said the Times. A “person’s DNA and context are constantly interacting,” and “experiences are the very tool that genetic predispositions use to mold who a person becomes.” If “we’d want to know someone’s personality at an individual level, genetics isn’t really a fruitful path,” Nivard said to ScienceAlert. Instead, “what genes do offer us is a way to link personality, in the aggregate across groups of people, to all other outcomes we have ever previously studied.”
