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Exploring the Genetic Aetiology of Trust in Adolescents: Combined Twin and DNA Analyses Wootton, R. E., Davis, O. S., Mottershaw, A. L., Wang, A., & Haworth, C. M. A. (2016). Exploring the genetic aetiology of trust in adolescents: Combined twin and DNA analyses. Twin Research and Human Genetics, 19(6), 638-646. https://doi.org/10.1017/thg.2016.84 Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record License (if available): CC BY Link to published version (if available): 10.1017/thg.2016.84 Link to publication record in Explore Bristol Research PDF-document This is the final published version of the article (version of record). It first appeared online via Cambridge University Press at https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/twin-research-and-human-genetics/article/exploring- the-genetic-etiology-of-trust-in-adolescents-combined-twin-and-dna- analyses/5BF8A9F5E74796F1903A0E8878C70825. Please refer to any applicable terms of use of the publisher. University of Bristol - Explore Bristol Research General rights This document is made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the reference above. Full terms of use are available: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/red/research-policy/pure/user-guides/ebr-terms/ Twin Research and Human Genetics Volume 19 Number 6 pp. 638–646 C The Author(s) 2016. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. doi:10.1017/thg.2016.84 Exploring the Genetic Etiology of Trust in Adolescents: Combined Twin and DNA Analyses Robyn E. Wootton,1,2 Oliver S. P. Davis,2 Abigail L. Mottershaw,1,2 R. Adele H. Wang,1,2 and Claire M. A. Haworth1,2 1School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK 2MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK Behavioral traits generally show moderate to strong genetic influence, with heritability estimates of around 50%. Some recent research has suggested that trust may be an exception because it is more strongly influenced by social interactions. In a sample of over 7,000 adolescent twins from the United Kingdom’s Twins Early Development Study, we found broad sense heritability estimates of 57% for generalized trust and 51% for trust in friends. Genomic-relatedness-matrix restricted maximum likelihood (GREML) estimates in the same sample indicate that 21% of the narrow sense genetic variance can be explained by common single nucleotide polymorphisms for generalized trust and 43% for trust in friends. As expected, this implies a large amount of unexplained heritability, although power is low for estimating DNA-based heritability. The missing heritability may be accounted for by interactions between DNA and the social environment during development or via gene–environment correlations with rare variants. How these genes and environments correlate seem especially important for the development of trust. Keywords: trust, twin design, heritability, DNA-based heritability Over a decade ago, the first law of behavioral genetics and broken, this damages relationships (Robinson, 1996). was asserted: ‘All human behavioural traits are heritable’ The benefit of cooperation to social evolution implies a (Turkheimer, 2000, p. 160). This statement was based upon genetic component is plausible (McNamara et al., 2009). repeated findings that regardless of the behavior there was Furthermore, understanding the genetic and environmen- genetic influence to some degree. Recently, a large meta- tal influences on trust could have implications for soci- analysis of twin studies showed average heritability of 49% etal interventions. Increased social support and stronger across 17,804 traits, including measures of behavior, depres- social networks increase psychological well-being (Billings sion, anxiety, and personality (Polderman et al., 2015). Even &Moos,1981;Turner,1981). With trust playing an im- ‘environmental’ influences, such as parenting, social sup- portant role in establishing and maintaining these rela- port, and divorce, typically show genetic influence; average tionships, understanding the etiology of trust might en- heritability of these measures was 27% in a meta-analysis able us to promote not just trust itself, but well-being (Kendler & Baker, 2007;McGueetal.2014). However, re- more broadly, and to understand the underlying biological cent research has suggested the trait of trust might be an ex- pathways. ception to the finding of moderate heritability (Van Lange et al., 2014). Genetic Influences on Trust Definitions of trust vary across disciplines (McKnight & Previous genetically informative studies of trust have esti- Chervany, 2001;Nannestad,2008), with the broadest be- mated it to be between 10% and 31% heritable (Cesarini ing generalized trust: the extent to which we trust people in et al., 2008;Hiraishietal.,2008;Sturgisetal.,2010;Van general (Nannestad, 2008;VanLange,2015). Trust is an im- portant component of social interactions on which our rela- tionships are built and strengthened (McKnight et al., 1998; Van Lange, 2015). Trust is necessary to facilitate successful received 8 August 2016; accepted 5 October 2016 cooperation (Balliet & Van Lange, 2013;Jones&George, address for correspondence: Robyn E. Wootton, University 1998;Nannestad,2008) and strengthen social networks of Bristol 12a, Priory Road Bristol, BS8 1TU United Kingdom. (Buskens, 2002;Nannestad,2008). When trust is misplaced E-mail: [email protected] 638 Downloaded from http:/www.cambridge.org/core. University of Bristol Library, on 29 Nov 2016 at 10:05:31, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at http:/www.cambridge.org/core/terms. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/thg.2016.84 The Genetic Etiology of Trust in Adolescents Lange et al., 2014). The latest of these studies used an ex- Methods tended twin design to conclude that the genetic influence Sample ontrustinanadultsamplewas‘virtuallyabsent’(VanLange The sample was taken from the Twins Early Development et al., 2014). Instead, the authors suggested that it was due Study (TEDS), a cohort of British twins born between 1994 to environmental factors, including cultural transmission. and 1996 in England and Wales. Data on trust were col- Cultural transmission is the passing of environments from lected via postal questionnaire and online questionnaire in parents to offspring: If people we trust cooperate, we learn two studies when the twins were 16 years old; 3,864 fam- to be trusting, and conversely, if people abuse our vulner- ilies took part in the mailed assessments, which included ability, we learn to be cautious. Therefore, trust is more the measure of generalized trust, and 6,248 families took determined by social attributes than personal ones. Social part in the web assessments, which included the measure explanations are rooted in attachment theory; our ability of trust in friends. The TEDS sample is representative of to trust is affected by early bonding experiences (Bowlby, the overall UK population (Haworth et al., 2013). Fami- 2005). With trust being governed by our relationships with lies were excluded from analysis if they had not provided otherpeopleandthesocialinteractionsweencounter,could consentatfirstcontact,didnotmeetmedicalexclusion it be predominantly socially influenced? Here, we estimate criteria, had experienced perinatal complications, or were the importance of genetic and environmental influences on of unknown zygosity. Consequently, for assessing general- trust in an adolescent sample. ized trust, twin analyses were conducted on 7,352 twins, including 3,592 complete twin pairs (46% male and 54% female; 36% monozygotic twins (MZ) and 64% dizygotic The Current Study twins (DZ)) with a mean age of 16.15 years. For assessing trust in friends, the sample consisted of 4,679 twins, includ- Our first aim was to investigate the genetic influences on ing 2,069 complete twin pairs (41% male and 59% female; two different aspects of trust using a twin design. These two 39% MZ and 61% DZ) with a mean age of 16.47 years. Over- aspects were captured by different measures. The first cap- all, the five twin categories (comprising sex and zygosity dif- tures generalized trust: our general beliefs about the nature ferences) were of the expected proportions (see Table S1). of strangers. The second measures trust in friends and our Zygosity was determined using a questionnaire (Gold- already established attachments. smith, 1991)completedbyparentsatfirstcontactandwhen ThesecondaimofthisstudywastocalculateDNA-based the twins were 3 and 4 years of age. Genetic data found heritability estimates of trust using genomic-relatedness- the questionnaire to be 95.7% accurate (Price et al., 2000). matrix restricted maximum likelihood (GREML) model- Incaseswherezygositywasuncertain,DNAmarkerswere ing. This method uses the twins’ genotyped common sin- tested. gle nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to account for vari- ance in the phenotype of trust. Variance explained us- ingthismethodcanonlybeattributedtocommonge- netic differences and their environmental correlates. Pre- Trust Measures vious estimates of the related trait of subjective well-being Two aspects of trust were measured: generalized trust and estimate 4% of the variance can be explained by DNA- trust in friends. Generalized trust was assessed using the based heritability (Okbay et al., 2016). Consequently, it is single item measure
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