Everyone Assumes DNA Shapes Your Personality. It Turns Out Something Else Is Doing Most of The Work - ScienceAlert
A massive genetic study of over 1.14 million people reveals that while DNA influences personality, it does not determine it. Researchers found over a thousand genetic variants linked to personality traits, but emphasize that environmental factors remain the primary drivers of individual character.
Why it matters
This research clarifies the limits of genetic determinism, helping to debunk the idea that personality can be predicted or 'read' through DNA alone.
Add ScienceAlert on Google Identical twins share almost all their DNA, but genes are only part of what shapes personality. (lambada/E+/Getty Images) One of the biggest existential questions an individual can ask is "What makes me, me?"
Identical twins have near-identical genetics, yet can still develop quite different personalities – about as perfect a demonstration as nature could offer that DNA isn't destiny.
Nevertheless, some part of who you are is written in A-T-C-G – the question is not whether DNA and personality are linked, but by how much.
Now, the largest genetic investigation of the Big Five personality traits to date has found more than a thousand genetic variants associated with the ways we tend to think, feel, and behave.
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