| Abstract: |
Research on happiness has produced valuable insights into the sources of
subjective well-being. A major finding from this literature is that people
exhibit a 'baseline' happiness that shows persistent strength over time, and
twin studies have shown that genes play a significant role in explaining the
variance of baseline happiness between individuals. However, these studies
have not identified which genes might be involved. This article presents
evidence of a specific gene that predicts subjective well-being. Using data
from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we show that
individuals with a transcriptionally more efficient version of the serotonin
transporter gene (5HTT) are significantly more likely to report higher levels
of life satisfaction. Having one or two alleles of the more efficient type
raises the average likelihood of being very satisfied with one's life by 8.5%
and 17.3%, respectively. This result may help to explain the stable component
of happiness and suggests that genetic association studies can help us to
better understand individual heterogeneity in subjective well- being. |