{"id":34564,"date":"2026-09-03T10:18:54","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T14:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/?p=34564"},"modified":"2026-09-02T17:20:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T21:20:05","slug":"new-study-finds-the-dna-of-personality-is-linked-to-our-health-wealth-work-and-love-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/2026\/09\/new-study-finds-the-dna-of-personality-is-linked-to-our-health-wealth-work-and-love-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"New study finds the DNA of personality is linked to our health, wealth, work and love lives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>Why this matters:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>New research suggests that the genetics of personality are more relevant to human experience than previously thought. Specifically, genetic variants that predict personality were found to be associated with health, education, career paths, among other major life outcomes. <\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>The research demonstrates how interconnected both genetics and the environment are in shaping people\u2019s personalities. <\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Findings encourage scientists of various fields of study to incorporate personality traits into their research for a better understanding of human behaviors and outcomes.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>EAST LANSING, Mich. \u2013 An international consortium of researchers found that more than 1,200 different genetic variants are associated with the Big Five personality traits \u2014 and surprisingly, these personality genetics are linked to dozens of life outcomes.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-026-10992-9\">This study<\/a>, led by the Revived Genomics of Personality Consortium, combined results from 46 different research cohorts around the world. Participants in each cohort provided a DNA sample and completed a questionnaire that measured the <strong>Big Five personality traits<\/strong>: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. These Big Five personality traits are relatively stable and habitual differences in how people think, feel and act. These DNA samples were then linked to differences in people\u2019s personality traits.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no single \u2018personality gene,\u2019 said <a href=\"https:\/\/psychology.msu.edu\/directory\/ted-schwaba.html\">Ted Schwaba<\/a>, lead author of this study and faculty at MSU\u2019s Department of Psychology. \u201cPersonality traits are associated with<strong> many genetic variants<\/strong>, but even the largest effects of individual genetic variants are still very small. However, even though any individual genetic variant makes very little difference in personality, the effects of many variants together can be more sizeable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Combined together, the researchers found that the <strong>genetic effects were more sizable and robus<\/strong>t. For example, the same variants linked to extraversion in a young adult in the Netherlands also predicted extraversion in an older adult retiree in the United States. Using methods that compared relatives to one another, the team also confirmed that these genetic links weren\u2019t actually the byproduct of a shared upbringing. Despite these genetic associations, they found that <strong>the environment<\/strong> still plays a major role in personality.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers note how relevant the genetics of personality are to so many parts of the human experience. The genetic variants that predict personality also partially predict mental and physical health, longevity, education, career paths and outcomes and even how people are perceived by close others. Genetic variants linked to conscientiousness, for example, were associated with being more active during the day while variants linked to openness to experience and extraversion were linked to being more of a night owl.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers say the findings point to an i<strong>nterconnected relationship<\/strong> between genetics and the environment. For example, the study found that common genetic variants linked to openness to experience predicted that a person would move to more cosmopolitan neighborhoods. In turn, living in those neighborhoods may reinforce and further shape that same trait.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPersonality seems to be relevant nearly everywhere you look. We hope this study will encourage many other scientists to incorporate personality traits into their fields of study,\u201d said Schwaba. \u201cFor example, genetic variants associated with <strong>neuroticism<\/strong> predict more time spent in the hospital, which is relevant to physicians and health researchers, and variants associated with openness to experience are linked to income and switching jobs, which is relevant to vocational researchers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Funding was supported in part by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute on Aging.<\/p>\n<p>###<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why this matters: New research suggests that the genetics of personality are more relevant to human experience than previously thought. Specifically, genetic variants that predict personality were found to be associated with health, education, career paths, among other major life outcomes. The research demonstrates how interconnected both genetics and the environment are in shaping people\u2019s&hellip;&nbsp;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":34565,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"no","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"off","neve_meta_content_width":70,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[954,101,261,159],"class_list":["post-34564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-big-five","tag-family","tag-openness","tag-relationships-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34564"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34566,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34564\/revisions\/34566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}