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What is your personality type?
Your experiences, upbringing and circumstances are probably the most important influences on your personality. However, your genes may affect how anxious you are, or how easily you become depressed, for example. In turn, this may affect how you react to certain situations. But genes are far from the whole story – although identical twins share identical genetic information, they often have very different personalities.
Identical twins often have very different personalities.
Do genes influence your personality?
The revolution in genetics has allowed scientists to look at human personality in a different light. Behaviours such as being open to new experiences or often feeling anxious have been linked to genes affecting specific chemicals in the brain. Genes can’t be the only explanation for such behaviours, but this research raises complex ethical questions. How do we define ourselves as individuals: are we independent, free and in control of who we are and what we do?
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