Scientists Identified The Genes Which Influence The Human Personality

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Scientists from the Washington University in St. Louis, in the US, and the University of Granada, in Spain, have successfully identified, for the first time, virtually all the genes related to the human personality, which will contribute to understanding the underlying mechanisms that influence emotions.

This scientific advance has been reflected in two articles published in the scientific journal Molecular Psychiatry, and could also help scientists understand the way in which human beings control their own “feelings, goals and values to live healthily and satisfactorily”, as reported by the researchers in a press release.

According to the study, carried out with the participation of twin brothers, the differences in personality are hereditary up to 50 percent, but, until now, researchers did not know which genes are involved in human personality traits. The researchers have developed a new method to identify clusters of genes that interact with each other and with the environment and influence the profiles of the characteristics that make up a person.

Scientists Identified The Genes Which Influence The Human Personality Traits

The authors of this paper have analyzed personality, health and life experience data of more than 2,000 people in Finland by measuring “both their emotional impulses, their temperament, and the aspects of personality that enable them to self-regulate their intentional behavior,” or their character, in short. The study was replicated with data of another set of participants from Korea.

“We have found almost 1,000 genes that directly influence temperament and character, both in Western culture and in Eastern culture,” explained the lead author of this paper, Igor Zwir. Thus, researchers have found that genes that cause basic emotional impulses, such as being fearful or impulsive, as well as genes that regulate those emotions, such as being cooperative or having initiative.

Scientists have found that, regarding human personality, genetic factors are organized into configurations of multiple traits that describe the person as a whole. In other words, the natural building blocks of character are multifaceted profiles of the whole person, not individual characteristics.

Vadim Ioan Caraiman

Vadim is a passionate writer on various topics but especially on stuff related to health, technology, and science. Therefore, for Great Lakes Ledger, Vadim will cover health and Sci&Tech news.