De Neve Jan-Emmanuel, Christakis Nicholas A, Fowler James H, Frey Bruno S
School of Public Policy, University College London, and Centre for Economic Performance (CEP), London School of Economics.
Harvard Medical School, Harvard University.
J Neurosci Psychol Econ. 2012 Nov;5(4). doi: 10.1037/a0030292.
We explore the influence of genetic variation on subjective well-being by employing a twin design and genetic association study. In a nationally-representative twin sample, we first show that about 33% of the variation in life satisfaction is explained by genetic variation. Although previous studies have shown that baseline happiness is significantly heritable, little research has considered molecular genetic associations with subjective well-being. We study the relationship between a functional polymorphism on the serotonin transporter gene () and life satisfaction. We initially find that individuals with the longer, transcriptionally more efficient variant of this genotype report greater life satisfaction (n=2,545, p=0.012). However, our replication attempts on independent samples produce mixed results indicating that more work needs to be done to better understand the relationship between this genotype and subjective well-being. This work has implications for how economists think about the determinants of utility, and the extent to which exogenous shocks might affect individual well-being.
我们通过采用双生子设计和基因关联研究来探究基因变异对主观幸福感的影响。在一个具有全国代表性的双生子样本中，我们首先表明，生活满意度约33%的变异可由基因变异解释。尽管先前的研究表明基线幸福感具有显著的遗传性，但很少有研究考虑分子基因与主观幸福感的关联。我们研究了血清素转运体基因（）上一个功能性多态性与生活满意度之间的关系。我们最初发现，具有该基因型较长且转录效率更高变体的个体报告的生活满意度更高（n = 2545，p = 0.012）。然而，我们在独立样本上的重复验证尝试得出了混合结果，这表明需要开展更多工作以更好地理解该基因型与主观幸福感之间的关系。这项工作对于经济学家如何思考效用的决定因素以及外生冲击可能影响个体幸福感的程度具有启示意义。
