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Your Personality May Be Written Into Your DNA More Than We Realized, New Study Finds

A study of more than a million genomes linked 1,260 DNA variants to major personality traits, though genes explain only a small part of who you become.

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There’s a useful saying in the world of genetics: DNA isn’t destiny. While genetics does play a big role in who you are, they don’t control everything. That said, scientists recently found over 1,000 genetic variants that are linked to all sorts of personality traits like neuroticism, anxiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and several other traits we can likely blame on or thank our genes for.

According to a massive new study published in Nature, an international team led by Michigan State University’s Ted Schwaba analyzed over one million genomes across 46 research cohorts. They mapped 1,260 genetic markers associated with the “Big Five”........

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