Abstract
Behavioral traits generally show moderate to strong genetic influence, with heritability estimates of around 50%. Some recent research has suggested that trust may be an exception because it is more strongly influenced by social interactions. In a sample of over 7,000 adolescent twins from the United Kingdom’s Twins Early Development Study, we found broad sense heritability estimates of 57% for generalized trust and 51% for trust in friends. Genomic-relatedness-matrix restricted maximum likelihood (GREML) estimates in the same sample indicate that 21% of the narrow sense genetic variance can be explained by common single nucleotide polymorphisms for generalized trust and 43% for trust in friends. As expected, this implies a large amount of unexplained heritability, although power is low for estimating DNA-based heritability. The missing heritability may be accounted for by interactions between DNA and the social environment during development or via gene–environment correlations with rare variants. How these genes and environments correlate seem especially important for the development of trust.
Highlights
Over a decade ago, the first law of behavioral genetics was asserted: ‘All human behavioural traits are heritable’ (Turkheimer, 2000, p. 160)
The second aim of this study was to calculate DNA-based heritability estimates of trust using genomic-relatednessmatrix restricted maximum likelihood (GREML) modeling
The third aim of this study was to identify specific single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with trust that partially explain the presence of DNA-based heritability
Summary
The first law of behavioral genetics was asserted: ‘All human behavioural traits are heritable’ (Turkheimer, 2000, p. 160). Trust is an important component of social interactions on which our relationships are built and strengthened (McKnight et al, 1998; Van Lange, 2015). Our first aim was to investigate the genetic influences on two different aspects of trust using a twin design These two aspects were captured by different measures. The second aim of this study was to calculate DNA-based heritability estimates of trust using genomic-relatednessmatrix restricted maximum likelihood (GREML) modeling. This method uses the twins’ genotyped common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to account for variance in the phenotype of trust. It is hypothesized that there will be a modest heritable component to trust, partially explained by common genetic variants
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