Posted by Donna Hobgood on April 4, 2012, 11:33 am
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22468688
Here we see more of the same: genetic vulnerability to non-supportive environment of a candidate gene for Perfectionism (5HTT s allele). In this study of African American youths, health was more adversely affected by poor support in environment for those carrying the 5HTT s allele.
Other studies have found that 5HTT s and several other genetic alleles demonstrated not so much vulnerability as plasticity to environment; that means that good environments made individuals with 5HTTs even better while bad environments put them at the worst disadvantage compared to individuals without the 5HTTs allele.
Does this mean that individuals with Perfectionism trait are highly sensitive to environmental support? I think it does. We may not see much difference except at extremes. Does this help explain why more challenging environments (like sub-Suharan Africa) show lower frequencies of the 5HTT s allele: perhaps not- the research consensus is that 5HTT s allele has not been subject to selection but just to more random effects in the course of evolution.
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