Heritability of cooperative behavior in the trust game

Although laboratory experiments document cooperative behavior in humans, little is known about the extent to which individual differences in cooperativeness result from genetic and environmental variation. In this article, we report the results of two independently conceived and executed studies of...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 105; no. 10; pp. 3721 - 3726
Main Authors Cesarini, David, Dawes, Christopher T, Fowler, James H, Johannesson, Magnus, Lichtenstein, Paul, Wallace, Björn
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States National Academy of Sciences 11.03.2008
National Acad Sciences
Subjects
Behavior
Behavioral genetics
Biological Sciences
Cooperative Behavior
Evolutionary genetics
Genetic diversity
Genetic research
Genetic Variation
Genetics
Heritability
Human genetics
Human subjects
Humans
Investors
laboratory experimentation
Parametric models
Quantitative Trait, Heritable
scientists
Social Sciences
Socialization
Statistical variance
Sweden
Trust
Twin studies
Twins
Twins, Dizygotic - psychology
Twins, Monozygotic - psychology
United States
United States > US
Sweden
United States
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Although laboratory experiments document cooperative behavior in humans, little is known about the extent to which individual differences in cooperativeness result from genetic and environmental variation. In this article, we report the results of two independently conceived and executed studies of monozygotic and dizygotic twins, one in Sweden and one in the United States. The results from these studies suggest that humans are endowed with genetic variation that influences the decision to invest, and to reciprocate investment, in the classic trust game. Based on these findings, we urge social scientists to take seriously the idea that differences in peer and parental socialization are not the only forces that influence variation in cooperative behavior.
Bibliography:SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 14
ObjectType-Article-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
Author contributions: D.C., C.T.D., J.H.F., M.J., P.L., and B.W. designed research; D.C., C.T.D., J.H.F., M.J., P.L., and B.W. performed research; C.T.D. and J.H.F. analyzed data; and D.C., C.T.D., J.H.F., M.J., and B.W. wrote the paper.
Edited by Elinor Ostrom, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, and approved January 15, 2008
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0710069105