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Genetic Associations Between Personality Traits and Lifetime Reproductive Success in Humans

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Abstract

Personality has been associated with reproductive success in humans and other animals, suggesting potential evolutionary selection pressures. However, studies to date have only examined these associations on a phenotypic level, which may be inadequate in estimating evolutionary change. Using a large longitudinal twin dataset of contemporary Finns, we compared the phenotypic (breeder’s equation) and genetically informed (the Robertson–Price identity) associations between lifetime reproductive success (LRS) and two personality traits—neuroticism and extraversion. Neuroticism was not associated with LRS at the phenotypic nor genetic level, while extraversion was associated with higher LRS in men both phenotypically and genetically. Compared to the univariate phenotypic analysis, the genetic analysis suggested a larger selection response of extraversion, and a selection response of neuroticism due to indirect selection. We estimated that neuroticism decreases by .05 standard deviations and extraversion increases by .11 standard deviations by one generation. Our results highlight the importance of considering genetic associations between personality and fitness and investigating several inter-related personality traits and their covariance with each other to predict responses to selection more accurately.

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Author notes

  1. Venla Berg

    Present address: Population Research Institute, Väestöliitto, P.O. Box 849, 00101, Helsinki, Finland

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Venla Berg & Markus Jokela

  2. Department of Biology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Virpi Lummaa

  3. Department of Anthropology, University of Durham, Durham, UK

    Ian J. Rickard

  4. Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Karri Silventoinen

  5. Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Jaakko Kaprio

  6. Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland FIMM, Helsinki, Finland

    Jaakko Kaprio

Authors
  1. Venla Berg
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  2. Virpi Lummaa
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Correspondence to Venla Berg.

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Conflict of Interest

Venla Berg, Virpi Lummaa, Ian J. Rickard, Karri Silventoinen, Jaakko Kaprio and Markus Jokela declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Funding

This study was funded by the Kone Foundation, University of Helsinki Research Funds, the Academy of Finland (grant number 266898 for VB, grant number 263278 for JK, grant number 292368 for VL, and grant number 266592 for KS), Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, and the Royal Society.

Additional information

Edited by Eric Turkheimer.

Appendix 1

Appendix 1

Items for extraversion and neuroticism, as translated in Tarkkonen et al. 1981

Extraversion

  1. 1.

    Do you like to have a lot of things going on around you?

  2. 2.

    Do you almost always have an answer ready when spoken to?

  3. 3.

    Do you prefer to keep to the background in the company of people?

  4. 4.

    Do you regard yourself as happy and carefree?

  5. 5.

    Do you have a lively manner?

  6. 6.

    Can you quickly describe your thoughts in words?

  7. 7.

    Do you have anything against selling things or asking people for money for some charitable purpose?

  8. 8.

    Do you keep things to yourself except with good friends?

  9. 9.

    Do you like to crack jokes and tell funny stories to your friends?

Neuroticism

  1. 1.

    Are you often uneasy, feeling that there is something you want without knowing it?

  2. 2.

    Are you sometimes happy or sometimes sad without any special reason?

  3. 3.

    Do you often reach decisions too late?

  4. 4.

    Do you often feel tired or listless without any special reason?

  5. 5.

    Are you often lost in your thoughts?

  6. 6.

    Are you extremely sensitive in any respects?

  7. 7.

    Are you ever too restless to sit still?

  8. 8.

    Do you have difficulties in falling asleep?

  9. 9.

    Do you have nervous problems?

  10. 10.

    Do you usually worry a long time after a distressing incident?

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Berg, V., Lummaa, V., Rickard, I.J. et al. Genetic Associations Between Personality Traits and Lifetime Reproductive Success in Humans. Behav Genet 46, 742–753 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-016-9803-5

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