Genome-wide association analyses of risk tolerance and risky behaviors in over 1 million individuals identify hundreds of loci and shared genetic influences.
Richard Karlsson LinnérPietro BiroliEdward KongS Fleur W MeddensRobbee WedowMark Alan FontanaMaël LebretonStephen P TinoAbdel AbdellaouiAnke R HammerschlagMichel G NivardAysu OkbayCornelius A RietveldPascal N TimshelMaciej TrzaskowskiRonald de VlamingChristian L ZündYanchun BaoLaura BuzduganAnn H CaplinChia-Yen ChenPeter EibichPierre FontanillasJuan R GonzalezPeter K JoshiVille KarhunenAaron KleinmanRemy Z LevinChristina M LillGerardus A MeddensGerard MuntanéSandra Sanchez-RoigeFrank J van RooijErdogan TaskesenYang WuFutao Zhangnull nullnull nullnull nullnull nullAdam AutonJason D BoardmanDavid W ClarkAndrew ConlinConor C DolanUrs FischbacherPatrick J F GroenenKathleen Mullan HarrisGregor HaslerAlbert HofmanMohammad Arfan IkramSonia JainRobert KarlssonRonald C KesslerMaarten KooymanJames MackillopMinna MännikköCarlos Morcillo-SuarezMatthew B McQueenKlaus M SchmidtMelissa C SmartMatthias SutterA Roy ThurikAndré G UitterlindenJon WhiteHarriet de WitJian YangLars BertramDorret I BoomsmaTõnu EskoErnst FehrDavid A HindsMagnus JohannessonMeena KumariDavid LaibsonPatrik K E MagnussonMichelle N MeyerArcadi NavarroAbraham A PalmerTune H PersDanielle PosthumaDaniel SchunkMurray B SteinRauli SventoHenning TiemeierPaul R H J TimmersPatrick TurleyRobert J UrsanoGert G WagnerJames F WilsonJacob GrattenJames J LeeDavid CesariniDaniel J BenjaminPhilipp D KoellingerJonathan P BeauchampPublished in: Nature genetics (2019)
Humans vary substantially in their willingness to take risks. In a combined sample of over 1 million individuals, we conducted genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of general risk tolerance, adventurousness, and risky behaviors in the driving, drinking, smoking, and sexual domains. Across all GWAS, we identified hundreds of associated loci, including 99 loci associated with general risk tolerance. We report evidence of substantial shared genetic influences across risk tolerance and the risky behaviors: 46 of the 99 general risk tolerance loci contain a lead SNP for at least one of our other GWAS, and general risk tolerance is genetically correlated ([Formula: see text] ~ 0.25 to 0.50) with a range of risky behaviors. Bioinformatics analyses imply that genes near SNPs associated with general risk tolerance are highly expressed in brain tissues and point to a role for glutamatergic and GABAergic neurotransmission. We found no evidence of enrichment for genes previously hypothesized to relate to risk tolerance.