Genetic associations with the Big Five personality traits probed in one million people

09 September 2026

Human DNA has been linked to personality traits — how individuals think, feel and act — thus identifying hundreds of genetic variants that contribute to the traits’ moderate heritability. The pathways from DNA to personality are robust yet complex, with widespread relevance for health, wealth, work and love.

This is a summary of: Schwaba, T. et al. Robust inference and correlates from genetic associations with personality. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10992-9 (2026).

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-02790-0‘Expert opinion’ is published under a CC BY 4.0 licence; Figure 1 is published under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence.

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