Genes affecting generosity may be found

[Michaelangelica]

In a new stu*dy, re*search*ers staged the game 203 times on*line be*tween dif*fer*ent play*ers un*aware of each oth*er’s ident*i*ties. The in*ves*ti*ga*tors an*a*lyzed the re*sults, as well as the par*ti*ci*pants’ genes. In this way they iden*ti*fied cer*tain vari*ants of a gene called AVPR1a as pos*sibly re*lat*ed to al*tru*ism.

 

Sci*en*tists are just be*gin*ning to find genes that may un*der*lie this en*ig*mat*ic qual*ity, which has long puz*zled bi*ol*o*gists be*cause of ques*tions over how it evolved.

 

The ex*pe*ri*ment pro*vided “the first ev*i*dence, to my knowl*edge, for a rela*t*ion*ship be*tween DNA vari*abil*ity and real (cost*ly) hu*man al*tru*ism,” wrote Ar*i*el Kna*fo of He*brew Un*ivers*ity in Je*ru*sa*lem, a mem*ber of the re*search team, in an e*mail. The study ap*pears in the early on*line edi*tion of the re*search jour*nal Genes, Brain and Be*hav*ior.

 

Genes affecting generosity may be found

 

From a very un-generous science website.