The genes in your congeniality: Researchers identify genetic influence in social networks
"Can't help being the life of the party? Maybe you were just born that way. Researchers from Harvard University and the University of California, San Diego have found that our place in a social network is influenced in part by our genes, according to new findings published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
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"We were able to show that our particular location in vast social networks has a genetic basis," says Christakis [of Harvard, who is professor of sociology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences]. "In fact, the beautiful and complicated pattern of human connection depends on our genes to a significant measure."
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The researchers found that popularity, or the number of times an individual was named as a friend, and the likelihood that those friends know one another, were both strongly heritable. Additionally, location within the network, or the tendency to be at the center or on the edges of the group, was also genetically linked. However, the researchers were surprised to learn that the number of people named as a friend by an individual did not appear to be inherited.