The Heritability of Personality Is Not Always 50%: Gene‐Environment Interactions and Correlations Between Personality and Parenting
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ABSTRACT Twin studies of personality are consistent in attributing approximately half of the variance in personality to genetic effects, with the remaining variance attributed to environments that make people within the same families different. Such conclusions, however, are based on quantitative models of human individual differences that estimate genetic and environmental contributions as constants for entire populations. Recent advances in statistical modeling allow for the possibility of estimating genetic and environmental contributions contingent on other variables, allowing the quantification of phenomena that have traditionally been characterized as gene‐environment interaction and correlation. We applied these newer models to understand how adolescents' descriptions of their relationships with their parents might change or moderate the impact of genetic and environmental factors on personality. We documented notable moderation in the domains of positive and negative emotionality, with parental relationships acting both to enhance and diminish both genetic and environmental effects. We discuss how genetic and environmental contributions to personality might be more richly conceptualized as dynamic systems of gene‐environment interplay—systems that are not captured by classical concepts, such as the overall heritability of personality.
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Other moderators also influence the heritability of traits.
“Krueger and colleagues have recently demonstrated that other moderators also influence the heritability of traits (see Krueger, South, Johnson et al. [2008]).”
From Personality Psychology and Economics (2011) · cites this paper as Krueger, South, Johnson et al. [2008]
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- Authors
- Krueger, R. F., South, S., Johnson, W., & Iacono, W.
- Affiliations
- University of Minnesota (US)
- Corresponding author
- Krueger, Robert F.
- Venue
- Journal of Personality
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2008-10-29
- Volume
- 76
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1485-1522
- ISSN
- 0022-3506 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-6494
- PMC
- PMC2593100
- OpenAlex
- W2101199776
- Cited by
- 216
- References
- 55
- Citations by year
- 2025: 6 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 30 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 14 · 2012: 17
- FWCI
- 15.62
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Personality (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (R01AA009367, R37AA009367)
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA005147, R37DA005147)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Keywords
- gene-environment interaction, gene-environment correlation, twin studies, parenting, parent-adolescent relationships, positive affectivity, negative affectivity, adolescent personality
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adolescent Behavior, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Male, Minnesota, Parent-Child Relations, Personality, Personality Inventory, Phenotype, Psychometrics, Social Environment, Twins, Parenting, Young Adult
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