Genes only influence our tendencies, but they do not determine the character "You are anxious like your father", "you talk a lot like your mother" or "you worry about everything like your grandmother". Many people have heard these comparisons at the family dinner table. And one of the largest studies ever conducted on personality suggests that these similarities are not entirely coincidental. The study, recently published in the scientific journal Nature, analyzed genetic data and personality traits of more than a million people. The main conclusion is that personality does have a genetic component, but it is complex, probabilistic, and not at all deterministic. This means that there is no single "character gene" that determines whether a person will be sociable, calm, or prone to anxiety. Instead, thousands of small changes in DNA can collectively affect how we tend to be. think, feel and behave. The researchers focused on the model known as the "Big Five", one of the most widely used systems for measuring personality. It analyzes five main traits: extraversion (being an open type), the tendency to cooperate and altruism, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to new experiences. Using a method that compares a large number of genetic variants with characteristics of certain, the researchers found that each of these traits is associated with an average of more than 16,000 independent DNA variants. In total, 1,263 variants were identified that showed the strongest statistical association with personality traits. Most of them were related to neuroticism, while other variants were associated with extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experiences and the tendency to cooperate. However, the influence of these genes is relatively limited. The identified variants explained only 5-16 percent of the variation in personality test scores. So if someone has more genetic variants associated with extraversion, this does not necessarily mean that person will be extraverted. The researchers also tried to separate the influence of genes from that of the environment. This was important, as members of the same family not only share DNA, but also education, economic conditions, social environment and life experiences. Part of the study compared dizygotic twin siblings, who have the same parents and usually grow up in the same environment, but do not have identical DNA. The results showed that people who had inherited a greater genetic predisposition for a trait certain tend to display that trait more strongly. Another analysis compared parents with their children. The researchers discovered that genetic links with personality in children are mainly related to the variants that they had actually inherited from their parents. But this does not mean that our character is written in DNA. Personality is formed by the continuous interaction between biological inheritance and life experiences. Genes may give us certain tendencies, but family, society, education and the events we experience, influence how we become the people we are. checkered

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