title: Is optimism heritable? A study of twins.
abstract: Is optimism heritable? We gave the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ), a measure of optimism, to 115 monozygotic twin pairs (MZ) and 27 dizygotic twin pairs (DZ). The intraclass correlations of the ASQ scores were 0.48 for MZ twins (P < 0.0001) and 0 for DZ twins. Though the sample size of DZ twins is small, these results suggest that there may be a substantial genetic effect on optimism. We speculate, however, that the mechanism for the transmission of this, and other complex personality traits, may be highly indirect.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104-6196.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Schulman
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Keith
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Seligman
mesh_terms: D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014429:Twins, Dizygotic / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology; D014430:Twins, Monozygotic / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology; D014705:Verbal Behavior