The genetics of happiness

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While I am not disagreeing with any of the findings presented in this article, I believe happiness is largely based on the environmental circumstances a person is presented with-not necessarily their inherited geetic traits. On a personal note, I have parents who are relatively introverted, which is the exact opposite of me. Before I went to college, I was also introverted; but, that was mostly due to the fact that I raised by introverted parents. However, as soon as I left for college, and consequently, my environment changed, I became very extroverted (mostly because I was given the chance to be). Thus, my point is: while genetics may have a role in a person's social character, I personally believe that whether or not a person is introverted or extroverted is really a matter up to them and depends on their current social situations.


This is a very interesting article about happiness. I never knew that happiness can be a genetic trait...but it makes a lot of sense sense so make our our mental traits are. This study is also a little unsettling because what if you have 2 very unhappy parents does that mean you too will be unhappy? It makes you think what other personality traits that make you you really come from your parents. Genetics is such an interesting field that still has many undiscovered features. It's exciting to see what geneticists discover next.


There is no quantifiable means to say how happy someone is feeling. Also, people choose their future and that future determines their happiness. You can be born in happy environment; however, it has nothing to do with genes or DNA, it is mostly based on the lives your parents lived and brought you into. Their successes or failures and the way they raise you, shape who you are, and something like emotion is not passed on through genetics.


It is interesting to see how people's moods are affected by DNA. However, I find the relationship between mood and preference of social environment to be more valuable. This research could possibly explain why different groups of people choose different lifestyles.


Happiness being found in genes is not much of a surprise. The research studied from a group of scientists from multiple colleges found that about a third of the people's happiness is heritable. Other than the obvious external factors that affect happiness, such as money, a job, age and personality type, happiness can be traced throughout DNA.


So this whole story really deals with the whole nature vs nurture debate. Now I'm not saying that this puts an end to this controversy but it definitely puts makes the idea lean to nature for personality.


"Connect the Dots" pretty much summed it up. There are just way too many things that affect happiness to even consider writing an article about just one of them being a cause of anything. This article is just an attention getter because it has to do with the genes of the human body. The percentages from their study about the short and long alleles are not strong enough to mean much. I have bad days and good days. Bad weeks and good weeks. Bad months and good months. If this group were tested a year later after a world-wide tragic event had occurred would the result be the same.

I think if anything, this gene test was testing was for the joy within people, not their happiness level. Joy is something that does not come and go, but comes from within and is a lifestyle and an outlook on life. Happiness is simply the current state someone is in. Someone with much joy can be very unhappy about not getting a promotion, or failing a test, or wrecking their car, because it does not change how they view and live life.


Every brain is different. Of course everyone has different levels of happiness. I doesn’t surprise me in the least the happiness is genetic. Genes play a huge part of everyone’s personalities. That’s explains why people who seem to have everything in life get depressed and why, even when some people seem to have nothing at all they can still be extremely happy. However, environment is also a huge part of happiness. There are many different variable to consider when calculating happiness.


It is interesting that happiness is genetic, but it makes sense. These types of studies help us understand who we are and where we come from. Beyond the obvious physical features we now have proof that feeling and thoughts can also be inherited. With this knowledge we might be able to find mental genetic disorders and find cures for them. Everyone knows that feelings have to do with our surroundings but I think how we deal with our surroundings and what we think about certain things are inherited. How we deal with our surrounding and how we think influence feelings. Thus, feelings are somewhat inherited. These studies bring us closer to knowing what makes us tick and in turn could lead to various cures. It will be interesting to see how this study, and other like it, inform us about who we are and what developments pertaining to the human genome develop.


I would be interested to see what results this study would produce in Russia where there was at one point a collectivist political system, but became a democracy.


I am not in the least bit surprised that happiness is partially genetic. I've thought that pretty much since I learned about genetics. Some diseases and mood disorders are hereditary, so it would stand to reason that some personality traits are as well. But it is interesting to see that there is apparently different averages for different races. And that these averages show a correlation between different political systems.

Emily Hindalong

I wonder how this will shape the future of humanity as genetic engineering becomes viable. It seems likely that more and more people would opt for their children to have the two long alleles. What would the consequences be?

On the surface, the evidence presented in this article suggests that this would lead to a shift toward individualistic values. But on the other hand, serotonin is also linked to greater empathy and fewer violent urges. So I wonder if this could lead to a paradoxical shift toward collectivist values, but not because people have a personal need for security and predictability (as in collectivist societies today), but because people are comfortable enough with themselves to take interest in the advancement of humanity as a whole.

Perhaps collectivism arise at the extremes -- when people are very insecure (because it's what everyone wants for themselves) and when people are very secure (because it's what everyone wants for each other), and individualistic values arise when the people are moderately secure on average (secure enough to believe they can thrive independently, but not secure enough to wish for others to have the same opportunities).


It's crazy what new technologies have allowed us to do in relation to discovering heritable traits versus those acquired through environment. A lot of presumed psychological theories now are questioned through the testing of identical twins as well as looking at the presence of long vs short. I think this will ultimately lead to new discoverings about personality and genetics.


This research suggesting that happiness may be genetically predisposed is interesting. The relationship between the length of the serotonin transporter alleles and level of happiness in a person seems logical-more serotonin floating around increases mood and the ability to feel happiness. But, to suggest that happiness is hereditary and predetermined by ethnicity is going a bit far. Happiness may be partially influenced by heredity, but many other factors such as environment and health are probably more important. To suggest that Asian culture emphasizes social harmony because the people have the shorter alleles and are more prone to anxiety is ridiculous. Perhaps they have the shorter alleles because of evolution, and the cultural influence of thousands of years of social harmony, which made the longer allele less dominant.


It seems that it is just another story, but is required lots of more works to prove, like evil gene. Around 10-year ago, Science magazine published a certain gene (called evil gene) can decide good or bad of human being. It was very interesting story, but that was all. It is hard to get solid evidence to prove.


Happiness cannot possibly be genetic. Maybe instead of looking into genetics it might be the family situation that the offspring lives in. If they grew up in an unhappy environment than yes, they are more likely to be unhappy in their childhood and even as an adult. So I think that instead of looking into DNA look at family tree's and situation. I think that someone can easily turn their situation around and be happy regardless of their genetic situation.


I've heard that our personality is built into our DNA, but I never realized that it could make the difference of someone being happy or unhappy. I also didn't know it was strictly from genetics, I always thought it was random. The fact that people act like their parents and family I believed was just from them living together, now I see its part of their genes/heredity. So I wonder if a child born from two unhappy people has any hope in being a happy person theme selves. Even if this individual had all the material things in the world they wanted, they still might not be happy. What really interested me was that the traits were race specific. It makes sense seeing as everyone from a certain country comes from the same descendants.


I agree and can see in my own life everything that the article states. Happiness is at least partially heritable. Just looking at different families, it is easily distinguishable as to different levels of happiness between them. And whether a person is employed or unemployed would on average definitely affect happiness, not having to worry about finding a job would decrease stress. Also, people who are confident in themselves don’t over analyze situations and stress out like anxious people do, so they would be happier. Along with external influences, there are so many different gene combinations that effect happiness. It is very interesting that the conducted study between different races indicates that Asians are typically the least happy race. This doesn’t surprise me because they always seem to be very tense and put pressures on themselves. The study on happiness is very intriguing and hopefully we will hear more about it in the near future.



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