The DOI matches its Crossref record; 47 of the 47 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The Personalities of Twins: Just Ordinary Folks
Open accessAbstract
Twin studies have demonstrated that personality traits show moderate genetic influence. The conclusions drawn from twin studies rely on the assumptions that twins are representative of the population at large and that monozygotic and dizygotic twins are comparable in every way that might have bearing on the traits being studied. To evaluate these assumptions, we used Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) data from three samples drawn from the Minnesota Twin Registry (totaling 12,971 respondents) to examine the effect sizes associated with mean differences on the 11 MPQ scales and 3 higher-order MPQ factors for singletons versus twins and MZ twins versus DZ twins. The singletons in the samples were family members of the participating twins. We also used ratios of scale variances to examine the significance of variance differences. The only mean or variance difference replicated across all three samples was greater Social Closeness (about.1 standard deviation) for twins than for singletons. This difference was obtained for both males and females. It would appear that, with respect to personality, twins are not systematically different from other people. Our results also highlight the importance of replication in psychological research because each of our large samples showed differences not replicated in other samples.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“For the study of both personality and somatic health, twins have been shown to be representative for the general population [31, 32]”
From Personality disorders are important risk factors for disability pensioning (2014) · cites this paper as [32]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Cohen, J. (1992) · Current Directions in Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/1467-8721.ep10768783 · Cited by 5,870
(1985) · Cited by 1,630
Personality similarity in twins reared apart and together.
Tellegen, A., Lykken, D. T., Bouchard, T. J., Wilcox, K. J., Segal, N. L., & Rich, S. (1988) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.54.6.1031 · Cited by 1,544
Self-citationStatistical significance in psychological research.
Lykken, D. T. (1968) · Psychological bulletin · doi:10.1037/h0026141 · Cited by 1,363
Tellegen, A., & Waller, N. G. (2008) · The SAGE Handbook of Personality Theory and Assessment: Volume 2 — Personality Measurement and Testing · doi:10.4135/9781849200479.n13 · Cited by 905
Heredity, Environment, and Personality
Loehlin, J. C., & Nichols, R. C. (1976) · University of Texas Press eBooks · doi:10.7560/730038 · Cited by 823
Adjustment of twin data for the effects of age and sex
McGue, M., & Bouchard, T. (1984) · Behavior Genetics · doi:10.1007/bf01080045 · Cited by 816
Self-citationGenes and environment in personality development
Loehlin, J. C. (1992) · DigitalGeorgetown (Georgetown University Library) · Cited by 799
A twin-pronged attack on complex traits
Martin, N. G., Boomsma, D. I., & Machin, G. A. (1997) · Nature Genetics · doi:10.1038/ng1297-387 · Cited by 654
Development and validation of a brief form of the multidimensional personality questionnaire
Patrick, C. J., Curtin, J. J., & Tellegen, A. (2002) · Psychological Assessment · doi:10.1037/1040-3590.14.2.150 · Cited by 647
Research works printed but not linked: 7
- Bouchard, Jr. T. J., & Loehlin, J. C. (in press). Genes, evolution, and personality. Behavior Genetics.
- Bryan, E. M. (1993). Prenatal and perinatal influences on twin children: Implications for twin studies. In J. T. J. Bouchard, & P. Popping (Eds.), Twins as a tool of behavioral genetics (pp. 218-25). Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
- In W. Damon, & N. Eisenberg (Eds.), Handbook of child psy- chology: Vol. 3; Social emotional, and personality development (311-388). New York: Wiley.
- Cunningham, F. G., McDonald, P. C., & Gant, N. F. (1989). Multifetal pregnancy. Williams Obstetrics (pp. 629-652).
- Hall, J. G. (1996). Twins and twinning. American Journal of Medical Genetics, 61, 202-204.
- Rutter, M., Simonoff, E., & Silberg, J. (1993). How informative are twin studies of child psychopathology? In T. J. Bouchard, Jr., & P. Popping, (Eds.), Twins as a tool of behavioral genetics (pp. 179-194). Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
- In A. H. Tuma, & J. D. Maser (Eds.), Anxiety and the anxiety disorders (pp. 681-706). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Caspi, A., Moffitt, T. E., Morgan, J. E., Rutter, M. L., Taylor, A., Arseneault, L., Tully, L. A., Jacobs, C., Kim‐Cohen, J., & Polo-Tomás, M. (2004) · Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1037/0012-1649.40.2.149 · Cited by 901
Genetic and environmental influences on human psychological differences
Bouchard, T. J., & McGue, M. (2003) · Journal of Neurobiology · doi:10.1002/neu.10160 · Cited by 870
Self-citationMoffitt, T. E. (2005) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.131.4.533 · Cited by 805
Arseneault, L., Cannon, M., Fisher, H. L., Polanczyk, G., Moffitt, T. E., & Caspi, A. (2011) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2010.10040567 · Cited by 584
Arseneault, L., Walsh, E., Trzesniewski, K. H., Newcombe, R., Caspi, A., & Moffitt, T. E. (2006) · PEDIATRICS · doi:10.1542/peds.2005-2388 · Cited by 551
Metadata
- Authors
- Johnson, W., Krueger, R. F., Bouchard, T. J., & McGue, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Minnesota (US)
- Corresponding author
- Johnson, Wendy
- Venue
- Twin Research
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2002-04-01
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 125-131
- ISSN
- 1369-0523 (ISSN-L)
- 0000-0000
- OpenAlex
- W2103747583
- Cited by
- 190
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 18.10
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Twin Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- University of Minnesota
- National Institutes of Health (2r01mh037860-07)
- National Institute of Mental Health (MH37860, 5 R01 MH37860, MH65137, R21MH065137, R21 MH 65137)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Assisted Reproductive Technology and Twin Pregnancy
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
- Keywords
- personality traits, twins, monozygotic twins, dizygotic twins, Minnesota Twin Registry, Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire, social proximity, replication, singletons
- MeSH terms
- Analysis of Variance, Female, Humans, Male, Personality, Personality Assessment, Surveys and Questionnaires, Twins, Twins, Dizygotic, Twins, Monozygotic
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
