Personality Is Linked to Genes, New Study Finds

Many, many genes—more than were identified in this study—are probably involved, influencing a variety of pathways in the brain, Nivard says. “That must be the case, given how diffuse we find those genetic effects to be.” 

“It’s a wonderful paper,” says Tena Vukasović Hlupić, a psychologist at the University of Zagreb who was not an author on the new study. “It’s finally empirical evidence that there is not one gene for whatever personality trait.”

Understanding the genetic variants playing into each trait may help psychologists and neuroscientists further explore the basic neurobiology of personality. “There’s this endless debate on whether our body and our experiences shape our personality, or whether personality shapes our experience. I’m super excited to go and use these results to dig into those kinds of questions,” says Nivard. 

This information also raises the possibility of using such variants as a way to screen for problems down the road, says Hlupić. The variants themselves are only a small part of what might give people a predisposition to a certain mental-health condition, for instance, but if they can be used as an indicator of risk, and early interventions can help, they might be useful tools beyond basic research.