A new study reveals that the genetic influences on social behaviour vary significantly with age, setting, and reporter, challenging previous one-size-fits-all models and highlighting the importance of context in genetic research.
Scientists have found that the genetics of social behaviour are more context-dependent than a simple one-size-fits-all model suggests, according to a study published in Nature Human Behaviour and summarised by the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. The international team analysed almost 500,000 observations of social behaviour from more than 73,000 people aged two to 29, looking at both low prosocial behaviour, such as helping, sharing and comforting, and peer and social difficulties, such as trouble making or keeping friends.
Rather than blending all measures into a single estimate, the researchers used a meta-regression approach that allowed them to examine how genetic effects shifted by age, reporter and social setting. That distinction mattered: the study identified six regions of the genome linked to social behaviour, and each showed evidence that its association changed across behavioural domain, informant and developmental stage. The strongest signal came from CADM2, a gene involved in neuron-to-neuron connections, particularly for self-reported low prosocial behaviour in late childhood and early adolescence.
The findings also suggest that the genetic architecture behind social behaviour is organised around four broad factors: two tied to the behavioural domains themselves and two reflecting differences between parent and teacher reports. Common genetic variation accounted for roughly 2% to 7% of the differences seen between individuals, and polygenic scores performed better when the context used in discovery matched the context in validation samples. Earlier research had already indicated that genetic influences on social communication can change across childhood and adolescence, while other studies have linked social behaviour with psychiatric traits including ADHD, autism, bipolar disorder, depression and schizophrenia.
The researchers said the work should not be read as a tool for predicting how any individual child will behave. Instead, it points to the importance of studying behaviour as something shaped by development and by the setting in which it is observed. Beate St Pourcain, the study’s senior investigator, said genome-wide analyses need to account for those differences rather than averaging them away, while the team plans to extend the approach by examining sex-specific patterns.
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