Abstract
Life financial outcomes carry a significant heritable component, but the mechanisms by which genes influence financial choices remain unclear. Focusing on a polymorphism in the promoter region of the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR), we found that individuals possessing the short allele of this gene invested less in equities, were less engaged in actively making investment decisions, and had fewer credit lines. Short allele carriers also showed higher levels of the personality trait neuroticism, despite not differing from others with respect to cognitive skills, education, or wealth. Mediation analysis suggested that the presence of the 5-HTTLPR short allele decreased real life measures of financial risk taking through its influence on neuroticism. These findings show that 5-HTTLPR short allele carriers avoid risky and complex financial choices due to negative emotional reactions, and have implications for understanding and managing individual differences in financial choice.
Highlights
Recent findings suggest that various aspects of economic behavior are heritable
Do genes influence cognitive abilities, do they shape the way people learn in financial markets, or do they determine risk attitudes? We sought to address this question by focusing on the role of a genetic polymorphism in the promoter region of the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR) which has recently been identified as important for financial risk taking
Sample items for Neuroticism include: ‘‘I am a worrier.’’ and ‘‘I often feel tense and jittery.’’ In this paper we focus on neuroticism for several reasons, including the strong link between this measure and anxiety, its high level of heritability (50% of individual differences in neuroticism are due to genetic factors), and its correlation with the 5-HTTLPR genotype [10], [11], [25]
Summary
Recent findings suggest that various aspects of economic behavior are heritable. Studies comparing choices of identical and fraternal twins find that inherited (and likely genetic) factors can account for 20%–30% of variation across individuals in terms of experimentally-elicited risk preferences [1], allocation to risky assets in real life portfolios [2], [3], and the propensity to save [4]. Genetic variation related to the functioning of two broadly distributed and influential neurotransmitters, serotonin and dopamine, have been shown to correlate with economic behavior in healthy individuals [5], [6], [7], and in individuals with diagnosed disorders including pathological gamblers and those with anxiety disorders [8], [9]. While these findings convincingly suggest that genetic factors are related to economic choice, they do not address the important question of how genes influence behavior. The goal of this study was to test whether short versus long serotonin transporter allele status would influence financial choices in a community sample, and to explore potential psychological mediators
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