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The role of genetics in subjective well-being

Nature Human Behaviour volume 3, page 3 (2019)Cite this article

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To the Editor — Nature Human Behaviour has recently published three important papers on subjective well-being (SWB), focusing on social factors in SWB1 and the association between income and SWB2, and including a comprehensive review of this scientific field3. All three studies are impressive. However, they mainly address phenotypic associations and environmental influences, and have a limited focus on genetics. As recent years have witnessed exciting developments in our knowledge about the genetic influences on SWB4, we want to add by elaborating briefly on these findings.

Genetic effects on well-being are replicable. Two meta-analyses of twin and family studies have shown average heritabilities of 0.36 (ref. 5) and 0.40 (ref. 6), providing solid evidence for genetic influences. These findings also testify to the important, and larger than genetic, causal effect of environmental factors. There is significant heterogeneity in the heritability estimates across studies, verifying that there is no fixed heritability. Rather, the heritability depends on the environmental variance, and may be moderated by characteristics of the population (for example, country, age, socioeconomic status) and the specific measures used6. Noteworthy, the cognitive evaluation of life satisfaction appears to be less influenced by genetic factors than other aspects such as positive emotions5.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Espen Røysamb & Ragnhild B. Nes

  2. Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway

    Espen Røysamb & Ragnhild B. Nes

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  1. Espen Røysamb
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  2. Ragnhild B. Nes
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Correspondence to Espen Røysamb.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Røysamb, E., Nes, R.B. The role of genetics in subjective well-being. Nat Hum Behav 3, 3 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-018-0494-1

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