Management and Organizational Studies Publications

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-1-2018

Volume

48

Issue

2

Journal

Behavior Genetics

First Page

147

URL with Digital Object Identifier

10.1007/s10519-017-9885-8

Last Page

154

Abstract

A previous meta-analysis (Van der Linden et al., Psychol Bull 143:36–52, 2017) showed that the General Factor of Personality (GFP) overlaps with ability as well as trait emotional intelligence (EI). The correlation between trait EI and the GFP was so high (ρ = 0.88) in that meta-analysis that these two may be considered virtually identical constructs. The present study builds on these findings by examining whether the strong phenotypic correlation between the GFP and trait EI has a genetic component. In a sample of monozygotic and dizygotic twins, the heritability estimates for the GFP and trait EI were 53 and 45%, respectively. Moreover, there was a strong genetic correlation of r =.90 between the GFP and trait EI. Additional analyses suggested that a substantial proportion of the genetic correlations reflects non-additive genetic effects (e.g., dominance and epistasis). These findings are discussed in light of evolutionary accounts of the GFP.

Share

COinS