A recent study has given genetic backing to the theory that humans form social relationships to those who are similar to them. The study supports the thought that you and your friends are more genetically similar then you are to strangers. The research utilized the multiyear data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, to examine genetic similarities between pairs of friends. The results claim that although there is evidence for friends having correlated genotypes at both the trait-associated loci and the entire genome level, social forces such as meritocratic school assignment, socioeconomics, and segregated geography are likely the underlying causes of this genetic similarity. The researchers also found evidence for what they dub the "social-genetic effect" in which the genetics of a person's friends and schoolmates influence the quality of education, regardless of a person's own genetics. See here for the article found in PNAS
- Louis Gorgone
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