How your personality influences your DNA

#personality #influences #DNA

Genes determine the color of your eyes, or whether you have a turned-up nose, and sometimes they give you an extra toe. They also have an influence on your personality. Out new research from the Universidad de Granada (Spain) it turns out that genes are not only part of your personality, but that it is also the other way around: your personality influences your DNA.

This is how I was born or this is how I was raised?

Your personality is the result of an interplay between nature in nurture, between what is innate to you and what you have acquired in your life. But how exactly do the two work together?

Did you know…
Even the DNA of identical twins is not exactly the same? Differences in their lifestyle, stress or environment cause small changes in their genetic code.

With the help of AI and data from more than 600 people, the Spanish researchers unraveled part of that interplay. It turned out that people with a creative view on life activate different groups of genes than people who are known to be creatures of habit.

Which genes are activated partly determines how your body responds. In the case of the creatives, they lead to a more positive and ultimately healthier lifestyle. Simplified, a vicious circle is created: the more positive outlook activates certain healthier genes, which in turn lead to even more positivity, etc.

Everyone hippie

Fear not, it’s far too early to say you should ditch your traditional ways and embrace a creative hippie style. But it is clear that head and body are strongly intertwined.

What was the deal with DNA again?
In the nucleus of every living cell there is a microscopic spiral: your DNA (the well-known double helix). The molecule consists of four different building blocks: adenine (A), thymine (T), cytosine (C) and guanine (G). These nucleotides form fixed pairs. A always goes with T, and C always goes with G. The order of these pairs forms your genetic code.

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