The Daily Stat from Harvard Business Review

 

January 15, 2015 Your Credit-Card Debt May Have Something to Do with Your Genes Having a particular genetic makeup raises people's likelihood of reporting credit-card debt by about 4%, according to a study of some 12,000 individuals by Jan-Emmanuel De Neve of University College London and James H. Fowler of the University of California San Diego. There is growing evidence that genetic variations affect people's financial behaviors; the variation shown to affect credit-card debt involves alleles of the MAOA gene that are linked to impulsivity and reduced conscientiousness. The researchers caution, however, that there is no single "debt gene"; instead, it's likely that genes combine with environmental factors to influence financial decision making. SOURCE: Credit card borrowing and the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene

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