CSChristoffel SneijdersThree brains: head, heart and gut for decisions you keep deferring

How Genes And Environment Impact Happiness, Wellbeing, And Health: Surprising Research

30 Aug 2016 · 5 min

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4:59

In this short talk, Christoffel Sneijders explains how much of who we are is determined by genetics versus environment and personal choices, drawing on classic identical‑twin‑separation studies. He reports heritability (correlation) estimates for a range of traits – fingerprint (97 %), height (86 %), weight (73 %), extraversion (54 %), neuroticism (48 %), and IQ at different ages (22 % at age 5, 54 % at 10, 82 % at 18, 85 % at 50). He notes that mental‑health conditions show varied genetic influence: schizophrenia (80 %), major depression (37 %), pain disorders (35 %), alcoholism (55 %). From these data he derives a simplified model: roughly 50 % of our outcomes are genetic, 10 % environmental, and 40 % driven by the decisions we make. He emphasizes that because the genetic contribution is not absolute, especially early in life, we have substantial room to change our trajectories through perception, choices, and actions. The talk ends with an encouraging message that understanding this balance empowers personal growth.

Chapters

Hey, good to see you again. Today let's talk about how can we change and where do we have control about about how we change. When I work with clients, I hear a lot of times people say to me, you know, Christoffel, I just have big bones. My mom was whatever, my dad was whatever, so that's What I am. So what is genes? What's the effect of our genes? And how much can we really change? And the beauty is there is a study done by on identical twins who were separated somewhere from birth. There's a lot of research done on those twins because they have almost the same DNA based on identical twin, or they have the same DNA. But they're born and raised in different kind of environments, so you can really see and experience how environment and what they do makes a difference in life. What they found out in those twin study, and I'm going to look there because then I really have the real data, is that when the fingerprint is something like 97% the same, they call it correlation. When you have correlation 1, it means it's identical. If it's a correlation 0, there's no any correlation between A and B. So 97, it's a fingerprint. When you talk about height, it's 86%. So you would say 86 of 100 could have really that connection with height with their parents or DNA. Weight is only 73. So 7 out of 10. When you look, say, at extraversion, how extrovert I am, is 54. So that's rather not a lot, I would say. To be neurotic, neurotic system, is 48. That's really amazing. When you look, say, at intelligence in IQ tests, when they are at the age of 5, There's a correlation of 22 on 100, almost nada, nada, almost nothing. When they have the age of 10, or we, it's 54. Age 18, it's 82. And when we are age 50, what some people are, it's 85% correlation. So there's a lot of possibility and change when we are still young, and we can really make the changes. When there are no changes done, and we get— we hit the age of 50, we're almost a connection of our DNA print. But when we're young, we have so much chance to change those kind of things. The nice thing is when you look at mental diseases like psychiatric illnesses like schizophrenia, it's 80 out of 100. That's really a high correlation. But major depressions— people say, oh, I'm clinically depressed— Parents versus whole family, 37%. 1 out of 3. It's not a lot. If your parents are, doesn't mean you are. Pain disorders, something like 35%. Also not really connected with a lot. Alcoholism, 55%. So there's not, I would say, a lot. Based on all this research, they said, hey, that means that genes are 50% somewhere responsible for how we are. 10% is environment, and 40%, 40% is how we make the decisions on what happens to us in our life. 40%. So just imagine that 50% is there. By looking at something in a different way, it can go up to 90%, or it can go to 10%. You have a huge range in variety How you can change the odds based on how do you make decisions, how do you perceive the world, and what you do with it based on research. Why I want to give you this little insight? Because they have an understanding we can do a lot. Of course, there are genes are involved, but if 50% is genes and 40% is how we can really make changes changes by the decisions we make and the actions we do. That's amazing. That's almost the same number of our genes. So say you have a 5, you can go to 9, or you can go to a 1. That's a huge difference what you can do. Have fun with this knowledge. See you later. Ciao.