TY - JOUR
T1 - The genetic origins of the relationship between psychological traits and social trust
AU - Oskarsson, Sven
AU - Dawes, Christopher
AU - Johannesson, Magnus
AU - Magnusson, Patrik K.E.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Foundation (grant P2008-0072:1), the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research (grant 2006-1623), and the Swedish Research Council (grant 2009-1713) for financial support. The Swedish Twin Registry is supported by grants from the Swedish Research Council and The Ministry for Higher Education. We also thank Asbjørn Sonne Nørgaard, Robert Klemmensen, and Peter Hatemi for funding the printing costs for this issue. Finally, we are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for valuable comments.
PY - 2012/2
Y1 - 2012/2
N2 - Recent studies have shown that trusting attitudes and behavior are biologically influenced. Focusing on the classic trust game, it has been demonstrated that oxytocin increases trust and that humans are endowed with genetic variation that influences their behavior in the game. Moreover, several studies have shown that a large share of the variation in survey responses to trust items is accounted for by an additive genetic component. Against this backdrop, this article makes two important contributions. First, utilizing a unique sample of more than 2,000 complete Swedish twin pairs, we provide further evidence of the heritability of social trust. Our estimates of the additive genetic component in social trust were consistent across the sexes -.33 for males and.39 for females - and are similar to the results reported in earlier studies. Secondly, we show that social trust is phenotypically related to three psychological traits - extraversion, personal control, and intelligence - and that genetic factors account for most of these correlations. Jointly, these psychological factors share around 30% of the genetic influence on social trust both for males and females. Future studies should further explore the possible causal pathways between genes and trust using panel data on both psychological traits and social trust.
AB - Recent studies have shown that trusting attitudes and behavior are biologically influenced. Focusing on the classic trust game, it has been demonstrated that oxytocin increases trust and that humans are endowed with genetic variation that influences their behavior in the game. Moreover, several studies have shown that a large share of the variation in survey responses to trust items is accounted for by an additive genetic component. Against this backdrop, this article makes two important contributions. First, utilizing a unique sample of more than 2,000 complete Swedish twin pairs, we provide further evidence of the heritability of social trust. Our estimates of the additive genetic component in social trust were consistent across the sexes -.33 for males and.39 for females - and are similar to the results reported in earlier studies. Secondly, we show that social trust is phenotypically related to three psychological traits - extraversion, personal control, and intelligence - and that genetic factors account for most of these correlations. Jointly, these psychological factors share around 30% of the genetic influence on social trust both for males and females. Future studies should further explore the possible causal pathways between genes and trust using panel data on both psychological traits and social trust.
KW - behavior genetics
KW - personality
KW - social trust
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U2 - 10.1375/twin.15.1.21
DO - 10.1375/twin.15.1.21
M3 - Article
C2 - 22784450
AN - SCOPUS:84865598225
SN - 1832-4274
VL - 15
SP - 21
EP - 33
JO - Twin Research and Human Genetics
JF - Twin Research and Human Genetics
IS - 1
ER -