Ted Schwaba, Margaret L Clapp Sullivan, Wonuola A Akingbuwa, Kerli Ilves, Peter T Tanksley, Camille M Williams, Yavor Dragostinov, Travis T Mallard, Justin D Tubbs, Wangjingyi Liao, Lindsay S Ackerman, Josephine C M Fealy, Gibran Hemani, Javier de la Fuente, George Davey Smith, Priya Gupta, Murray B Stein, Joel Gelernter, Daniel F Levey, Urmo Võsa, Liisi Ausmees, Anu Realo, Estonian Biobank Research Team, Mariliis Vaht, Jüri Allik, Tõnu Esko, René Mõttus, Uku Vainik, Gudrun A Jonsdottir, Gudmar Thorleifsson, Árni Freyr Gunnarsson, Gyda Bjornsdottir, Thorgeir E Thorgeirsson, Hreinn Stefansson, Kari Stefansson, Rosa Cheesman, Qi Qin, Elizabeth C Corfield, Helga Ask, Fartein Ask Torvik, Eivind Ystrom, Martin Tesli, Dorret I Boomsma, Eco J C de Geus, Jouke-Jan Hottenga, Dener Cardoso Melo, Harold Snieder, Catharina A Hartman, Charley Xia, Archie Campbell, Michelle Luciano, Ian J Deary, W David Hill, Seon-Kyeong Jang, Scott I Vrieze, Gonçalo Abecasis, Michelle K Lupton, Brittany L Mitchell, Petra V Viher, Lucía Colodro-Conde, Nicholas G Martin, Sarah E Medland, Eske M Derks, Briar Wormington, Jaakko Kaprio, Karri Silventoinen, Teemu Palviainen, Agnieszka Musial, Kaili Rimfeld, Robert Plomin, Margherita Malanchini, Danielle M Dick, Fazil Aliev, COGA Collaborators, Spit for Science Working Group, Laura W Wesseldijk, Fredrik Ullén, Miriam A Mosing, Henry R Kranzler, Yaira Nunez, Sarah Beck, Renato Polimanti, Tobias Edwards, Alexandros Giannelis, Emily A Willoughby, James J Lee, Matt McGue, Antonio Terracciano, Michele Marongiu, Edoardo Fiorillo, Francesco Cucca, Angelina R Sutin, Peter J van der Most, Albertine J Oldehinkel, Tina Kretschmer, Andrey A Shabalin, Anna R Docherty, Robert F Krueger, Colin D Freilich, Binisha H Mishra, Terho Lehtimäki, Olli T Raitakari, Mika Kähönen, Aino Saarinen, Henrik Dobewall, Liisa Keltikangas-Järvinen, Klaus Berger, Marisol Herrera-Rivero, Fabian Streit, Swapnil Awasthi, Stephanie H Witt, Johanna Tuhkanen, Katri Räikkönen, Johan G Eriksson, Jari Lahti, Gail Davies, Paul Redmond, Adele Taylor, Janie Corley, Tom C Russ, Marina Ciullo, Teresa Nutile, Jun Ding, Yong Qian, Toshiko Tanaka, Luigi Ferrucci, Lea Zillich, Lea Sirignano, K Paige Harden, Erhan Genç, Patrick D Gajewski, Stephan Getzmann, Christoph Fraenz, Javier E Schneider Peñate, Stefanie Lis, Alisha S M Hall, Christian Schmahl, Sabine C Herpertz, Abdel Abdellaoui, Michel G Nivard, Elliot M Tucker-Drob
Personality traits describe stable differences in how people think, feel and behave, and how they interact with and experience their social and physical environments1,2. Many questions remain unanswered about associations between DNA and personality traits, such as their robustness, their generalizability and the biological and social pathways through which they act. Here we meta-analyse data across 46 cohorts comprising 611,037 to 1.14 million participants with European-like and African-like genomes for genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of the Big Five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience), and data from up to 50,725 participants for within-family GWAS. We identify 1,260 lead genetic variants associated with personality, including 824 novel variants3. Common genetic variants explain a moderate 4.8-9.3% of the variance in measures of each trait, and 9.3-13.3% among instruments with typical measurement reliability. Genetic associations with personality are highly consistent but not identical across geography, reporter (self versus close other), age group and measurement instrument, and we find minimal spousal assortment for personality in recent history. In contrast to many other social and behavioural traits4,5, within-family GWAS and polygenic index analyses indicate that genetic associations with personality are minimally confounded by the shared family environment. Polygenic prediction, genetic correlation and Mendelian randomization analyses indicate that personality traits have widespread, potentially causal associations with consequential behaviours and life outcomes. Overall, we find that the genetic architecture of personality is robustly generalizable, minimally confounded and widely relevant to human experience.