The researchers found that common genetic variants account for a small percentage of variation in the 'Big Five' personality traits ' extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience ' within a population. Although the genetic links to personality are small, the study found that they are more robust to confounding factors such as family background than are gene associations with education level, income and some other socio-behavioural traits. Using these genetic correlations, the researchers connected personality traits to a slew of health and lifestyle factors, including whether a person is likely to take up smoking (linked to how conscientious they are), COVID-19 infection risk (linked to extroversion) and even participation in research studies (linked to a person's agreeableness and openness to experience). 'Personality is super central to all kinds of human outcomes,' says Michel Nivard, a genetic epidemiologist at the University of Bristol,...
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