The Heritability of Common Phobic Fear: A Twin Study of a Clinical Sample

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the genetic and environmental contribution to common phobic fears, and to relate the findings to contemporary theories about the etiology of common phobic fears. Self-reported common phobic fear was studied in a treatment sample of 23 monozygotic and 38 same-sex dizygotic twin pairs. Heritability of .47 was observed for common phobic fear of small animals and social fear, and a heritability of .30 in common agoraphobic fear. For common fear of nature phenomena and situational fear, the heritability was 0. The finding that common nature and situational fears were solely caused by environmental factors is in support of learning theory, whereas results for animal, social, and other common phobic fear are in support of an integrative theory of biological preparedness, learning history, and a cognitive style of fearful expectation.