I agree that the data in the above study is weak. And I agree with the spirit of what most of the commenters are saying here which is that personal choices do not require the crutch of genetic validation. It's like the genetic defense in criminal law...my genes made me do it!
But I wouldn't want to write off the entire field of genetic personality research... The following article sounds compelling to me, though I admit I forget what "p = 0.013" means as a measure of statistical significance.
As a father of four boys, I see striking differences in their personality that I can only attribute to genetics: #1 and #3 share many personality traits in common as do #2 and #4, but the odd numbered kids are WAY different from the even numbered ones (I won't bore you with the list of traits, but it's formitable and would be straightforward to measure objectively).
Some personality traits do appear to be genetic...
But I wouldn't want to write off the entire field of genetic personality research... The following article sounds compelling to me, though I admit I forget what "p = 0.013" means as a measure of statistical significance.
As a father of four boys, I see striking differences in their personality that I can only attribute to genetics: #1 and #3 share many personality traits in common as do #2 and #4, but the odd numbered kids are WAY different from the even numbered ones (I won't bore you with the list of traits, but it's formitable and would be straightforward to measure objectively).
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9A0DE2D61539F931A35752C0A960958260
Link to study summary:
http://www.walkerbioscience.com/powerpoint/bio45/bio45-5/Genes%20that%20affect%20novelty%20seeking%20behavior.ppt