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The Heritability of happiness
‘Happiness depends, as Nature shows, less on
exterior things than most suppose. ‘
- William Cowper
What is ‘happiness’?
• Studied at various levels and has several parts
• Positive emotion can be experienced at the
same time as negative emotion
• Subjective happiness
• Objective happiness
• ‘Life satisfaction’
• ‘Happiness’ – often used interchangeably with
‘subjective well-being’
Is happiness heritable?
• Lykken and Tellegen (1996)
– Longitudinal, twin study
– Happiness measure: Well Being scale of the
Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (a selfreport inventory)
– Twins raised together: correlations = 0.44 MZ, 0.08 DZ
– Twins separated and reared apart: correlations = 0.52
MZ, -0.02 DZ
– Broad heritability of Well Being = 40-50%
– Very similar results at Time 2, revealing that stability
in happiness is 80% attributable to genetic factors.
Lykken and Tellegen (1996). Happiness is a stochastic phenomenon. Psychological Science 7(3), 186-189.
Genetic Influences
• Other studies have found that genetic influences
usually account for 35-50% of the variance in
happiness measures (Roysamb et al., 2002;
Stubbe et al., 2005; Nes et al, 2005, 2006).
• Genetic influences on happiness and well-being
appear to reflect both additive and non-additive
genetic effects.
• The location of the ‘happiness gene’ is still
unknown.
Happiness and personality: a
common genetic background?
• Edinburgh psychologists
• Found no genetic effects that were specific to
subjective well-being.
• Instead they identified common genes that
result in certain personality traits, which in
turn predispose people to happiness.
• Those who have the right mix of personality
genes build an ‘affective reserve’ of happiness.
Weiss, Bates & Luciano (2008) Happiness is a personal(ity) thing. Psychological Science, 19(3), 205-210.
Environmental influences
• Non-genetic influences on well-being and
happiness mostly reflect non-shared
environmental effects.
• Effects from shared environmental factors
appear to be minor or entirely negligible.
Implications
• Evidence for considerable and stable genetic
contributions suggests that societal changes
and therapeutic interventions may produce
mainly transitory or minor effects
–This is not true, high heritability does
not limit chances for raising happiness.
• Genes effect long-term happiness,
environment affects the here and now.
Conclusions
• Happiness is influenced by genes.
• Short-term happiness is affected by
environmental factors.
• Long-term happiness is predominantly
influenced by genes.