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The Genetic Correlation between Height and IQ: Shared Genes or Assortative Mating?

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  • Matthew C Keller
  • Christine E Garver-Apgar
  • Margaret J Wright
  • Nicholas G Martin
  • Robin P Corley
  • Michael C Stallings
  • John K Hewitt
  • Brendan P Zietsch

Abstract

Traits that are attractive to the opposite sex are often positively correlated when scaled such that scores increase with attractiveness, and this correlation typically has a genetic component. Such traits can be genetically correlated due to genes that affect both traits (“pleiotropy”) and/or because assortative mating causes statistical correlations to develop between selected alleles across the traits (“gametic phase disequilibrium”). In this study, we modeled the covariation between monozygotic and dizygotic twins, their siblings, and their parents (total N = 7,905) to elucidate the nature of the correlation between two potentially sexually selected traits in humans: height and IQ. Unlike previous designs used to investigate the nature of the height–IQ correlation, the present design accounts for the effects of assortative mating and provides much less biased estimates of additive genetic, non-additive genetic, and shared environmental influences. Both traits were highly heritable, although there was greater evidence for non-additive genetic effects in males. After accounting for assortative mating, the correlation between height and IQ was found to be almost entirely genetic in nature. Model fits indicate that both pleiotropy and assortative mating contribute significantly and about equally to this genetic correlation. Author Summary: Traits that are attractive to the opposite sex are often positively correlated when scaled such that scores increase with attractiveness, and this correlation typically has a genetic component. Such traits can be genetically correlated due to genes that affect both traits and/or because assortative mating (people choosing mates who are similar to themselves) causes statistical correlations to develop between selected alleles across the traits. In this study, we used a large (total N = 7,905), genetically informative dataset to understand why two potentially sexually selected traits in humans—height and IQ—are correlated. We found that both shared genes and assortative mating were about equally important in causing the relationship between these two traits. To our knowledge, this is the first study that has been able to disambiguate the two principal reasons—shared genes versus assortative mating—for why traits can be genetically correlated.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthew C Keller & Christine E Garver-Apgar & Margaret J Wright & Nicholas G Martin & Robin P Corley & Michael C Stallings & John K Hewitt & Brendan P Zietsch, 2013. "The Genetic Correlation between Height and IQ: Shared Genes or Assortative Mating?," PLOS Genetics, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(4), pages 1-10, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pgen00:1003451
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1003451
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    Cited by:

    1. Petter Lundborg & Carl Hampus Lyttkens & Paul Nystedt, 2016. "The Effect of Schooling on Mortality: New Evidence From 50,000 Swedish Twins," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(4), pages 1135-1168, August.
    2. Lee, James J. & McGue, Matt & Iacono, William G. & Michael, Andrew M. & Chabris, Christopher F., 2019. "The causal influence of brain size on human intelligence: Evidence from within-family phenotypic associations and GWAS modeling," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 48-58.
    3. John V.C. Nye & Sergiy Polyachenko, 2013. "Does education or underlying human capital explain liberal economic attitudes?," HSE Working papers WP BRP 40/EC/2013, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    4. Lång, Elisabeth & Nystedt, Paul, 2018. "Two by two, inch by inch: Height as an indicator of environmental conditions during childhood and its influence on earnings over the life cycle among twins," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 53-66.
    5. Jennifer Sjaarda & Zoltán Kutalik, 2023. "Partner choice, confounding and trait convergence all contribute to phenotypic partner similarity," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 7(5), pages 776-789, May.
    6. Laborda, Leopoldo & Elosúa, M. Rosa & Gómez-Veiga, Isabel, 2019. "Ethnicity and intelligence in children exposed to poverty environments: An analysis using the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 49-58.

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