Abstract
A previous meta-analysis (Van der Linden et al., Psychol Bull 143:36–52, 2017) showed that the General Factor of Personality (GFP) overlaps with ability as well as trait emotional intelligence (EI). The correlation between trait EI and the GFP was so high (ρ = 0.88) in that meta-analysis that these two may be considered virtually identical constructs. The present study builds on these findings by examining whether the strong phenotypic correlation between the GFP and trait EI has a genetic component. In a sample of monozygotic and dizygotic twins, the heritability estimates for the GFP and trait EI were 53 and 45%, respectively. Moreover, there was a strong genetic correlation of r = .90 between the GFP and trait EI. Additional analyses suggested that a substantial proportion of the genetic correlations reflects non-additive genetic effects (e.g., dominance and epistasis). These findings are discussed in light of evolutionary accounts of the GFP.
Highlights
The scientific search for the basic personality dimensions has led to several models consisting of various, presumably independent, factors
Personality traits seem to share a relevant proportion of their variance, which has been labelled as the General Factor of Personality or GFP (Figueredo et al 2004; Rushton et al 2008)
In the best fitting model (DE), in which the three parameters of A were fixed to zero, the genetic correlation was estimated at r = .90 while the unique environmental correlation was r = .54 suggesting that all genetic covariance in the GFP-trait emotional intelligence (EI) association could be attributed to non-additive genetic variance
Summary
The scientific search for the basic personality dimensions has led to several models consisting of various, presumably independent, factors. The fact that trait EI and the GFP show a very high phenotypic correlation and that both constructs have heritable components suggests that some part of their overlap may be genetic. Based on the extremely large phenotypic overlap found in a previous meta-analysis (Van der Linden et al 2017) and the hypothesis that trait EI and the GFP may share common psychological mechanisms (e.g., social knowledge and skills), it is conceivable that their correlation does have a substantial genetic component. If a set of genes influenced a broad psychological mechanism jointly involved in the manifestation of personality and trait EI, we may speak of pleiotropy (e.g., Keller et al 2010); genes that affect multiple phenotypic traits In such a case, the GFP and trait EI would be expected to show a positive genetic correlation. We examined it on data from a sample of adult twins in Canada and the United States (Vernon et al 2008)
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