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Anxious or outgoing? Huge study links ‘Big Five’ personality traits to genetic variants
Nature • • science
Key Points:
- A large-scale study involving over one million people identified approximately 1,200 genetic variants linked to the Big Five personality traits, marking the largest effort of its kind to date.
- Common genetic variants explain between 5% and 16% of variation in personality traits such as extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience, though individual variants have very small effects.
- The genetic associations with personality traits are more robust against confounding factors like family background compared to gene associations with education, income, and other socio-behavioural traits.
- Researchers connected personality-linked genetic variants to various health and lifestyle outcomes, including smoking behavior, COVID-19 infection risk, and participation in research studies, highlighting personality’s broad influence on human outcomes.
- The study found little evidence that shared family environment or assortative mating (choosing spouses with similar personalities) significantly influence the genetic associations with personality traits.
