Have you ever wondered what makes you popular or not? Apparently, the genes you inherited from your parents seem to answer the question. According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, genes may influence whether or not you’re popular and more than that, they may also play a role in the number of friends you have and whether you’re an important member of your social group or not.
The study was the work of researchers from Harvard University and the University of California, San Diego. They based their findings on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which belonged to the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill of the influence of health on the social behavior of about 90,000 teens. More exactly, they studied 1,110 twins from 142 schools.
The study showed that identical twins, who share the same genetic make up, often shared the same position within a group, no matter they were popular or not. On the other hand, non-identical twins, who do not share the same genes, were more likely to have different levels of popularity among their friends.
Based on the findings, Nicholas Christakis of Harvard University in Massachusetts, who helped conduct the study, said “the beautiful and complicated pattern of human connection depends on our genes to a significant measure.”
The researchers found that genes are about 50 percent responsible for both our number of friends and whether we like to flit among social groups or stick together with the friends we already have.
“One of the things that the study tells us is that social networks are likely to be a fundamental part of our genetic heritage. It may be that natural selection is acting on not just things like whether or not we can resist the common cold, but also who it is that we are going to come into contact with,” said James Fowler, a political scientist and a co-author at the University of California, San Diego.
Dr. Christakis and Fowler are not at their first attempt to study social interactions. No further than December, they released the findings of another study, this time on happiness. More exactly, they found out that happiness is contagious, as it spreads among people no matter they know each other or not. Consequently, a next-door neighbor’s joy made the chances of a person being happy go up 34 percent, while a down the block neighbor’s good spirits had no such effect.
Moreover, a friend living one mile away could increase one’s happiness by 42 percent, but one living two miles away could only give rise to a 21 percent bounce. As for a friend from a different community, no impact on the level of happiness was registered.
