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Life

If you've got great genes, it pays to be extrovert

By Bob Holmes

30 June 2010

Âé¶¹´«Ã½. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Was she born an extrovert?

(Image: Mark Scoggins/Workbook Stock/Getty)

EXTROVERTS are born not made – or at least, that’s what they say. But what if it’s more subtle than that? What if we tailor our personalities to our surroundings to make the most of our genes?

Conventional comparisons between identical and fraternal twins indicate that nearly half of individual differences in personality traits have some underlying genetic cause. So people have tended to think of personality traits as largely determined by genes, says evolutionary psychologist of the University of California at Santa Barbara.

He felt there was a flaw…

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