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Comment by jokoon | Hacker News Reader

Even when kids are put in school, they still spend a lot of time with their parents, and children do a lot of mimetic

Would genetics lead to some personality disorder that are common in a family, and would that lead to similar personalities? Or would some brain-related genes lead to some forms of personality tendencies?

I would also guess the definition of personality could be rejected by skeptics, since it's very difficult to define how we perceive or measure personality traits. It's scientific, but many would have no problem undermining some aspects of those definitions.

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There have been studies against twins, separated at birth, that suggest there is a significant genetic component to personality [1]. To me, this seems obvious.

[1] https://www.apa.org/monitor/2015/01/double-life#:~:text=That....

> Would genetics lead to some personality disorder that are common in a family, and would that lead to similar personalities?

To some extent, yes. "Personality disorders" are caused by a combination of genetic predispositions and behavior. For instance, someone with a high level of sensitivity might learn from their parents and the environment to become anxious.

> I would also guess the definition of personality could be rejected by skeptics

The thing to understand about psychology is that all the lines are arbitrarily drawn, and other cultures have traditionally had other labels than the west does. There's honestly no escape from the arbitrariness of it, but it helps to come up with some sort of system.

The personality metrics they're using are the Big-5. The Big 5 has good test-retest scores (if you take the test a month apart, you're likely to get the same scores). Big 5 is used in a ton of psychological studies now.

If I had to bet on nature vs nurture, I'd place bets on nature. Separated twin studies seem to suggest genes are a strong determiner. And if you've ever met a kid who stubbornly prefers to be introverted or extroverted-- it often has nothing to do with how adults are treating them.

Most people are unaware of the separated twin studies and it shows.

>And if you've ever met a kid who stubbornly prefers to be introverted or extroverted...

My mom says she had an inkling I would be introverted (like my dad) and my sister would be extraverted (like her) just based on our behavior in the womb. I was very calm and nonreactive, while my sister was a big kicker and very reactive to external stimuli. Those personality traits have indeed persisted through adulthood.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits#Cr... quite a lot of critics in there

I don't dismiss it entirely, and humans don't really know enough about how the brain works on the mechanical level. The big 5 doesn't look very insightful.

Genetics would not impart all personalities, but generally would impart many autistic spectrum traits - which covers a large swath of social interactions - however keep in mind autism is so many genes that a parent may have a completely different reaction to something than their child, and the fact that there is a second gene pool.

For the most part, those genes have massive effects on hormone levels during development which has a huge affect on personality. In general this is why the linkage between personality and heredity is so hard to track.

> and children do a lot of mimetic

Do you mean they learn by osmosis from their parents? That's a known thing already and it's very obvious.

Only if they have a pool.

Something nobody seems to mention that could be a convoluting factor...

I wonder if this operates bidirectionally - if parents learn traits from their offspring, maybe to a lesser extent. If you have a group of people that constantly spend time around each other, they all seem to average out their social tendencies over time, to some degree. As children get older and develop more defined characteristics, it's possible this isn't a one-way street.

To some extend, but at 36 I’m already pretty set in my ways. While my son might occassionally affect me, I think the reverse is a constant.

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