Early disadvantage steers individuals genetically predisposed to educational success towards caution and short-term choices, limiting social mobility.
Image Credit: Scientific Frontline
Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary
- Main Discovery: Genetic predispositions for educational attainment manifest distinct behavioral patterns depending on childhood environment, where advantaged backgrounds foster risk tolerance and patience while disadvantaged backgrounds channel the same potential into heightened caution and immediate survival focus.
- Methodology: Researchers analyzed genetic, behavioral, and socioeconomic data from tens of thousands of UK adults via the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, calculating polygenic scores for educational attainment and correlating them with adult economic preferences like risk tolerance and time discounting under varying childhood conditions.
- Key Data: The study utilized a large national cohort of UK adults of European ancestry, identifying a distinct divergence where high genetic scores correlated with patience in advantaged groups but increased sensitivity to loss and focus on immediate needs in disadvantaged groups.
- Significance: This research identifies a hidden barrier to social mobility, demonstrating that poverty effectively rewrites biological blueprints for success by forcing genetically capable individuals to prioritize immediate security over long-term investment.
- Future Application: Findings suggest that policy interventions aiming to improve social mobility must address early-life environmental stressors to allow genetic potential for long-term planning and risk-taking to manifest effectively in education and career choices.
- Branch of Science: Behavioral Economics, Behavioral Genetics, and Psychology.
- Additional Detail: Published in Communications Psychology, the study highlights how risk-taking and patience—critical for entrepreneurship and financial planning—are environmentally modulated phenotypes rather than fixed genetic traits.
New research from the University of Bath’s School of Management shows that a genetic predisposition for success can be derailed by childhood adversity, shifting focus from long term goals to immediate survival, creating hidden barriers to social mobility.
The study, published in Communications Psychology, finds that genes associated with educational attainment influence how people weigh risks and wait for payoffs - but the direction of these effects is shaped by childhood circumstances.
Individuals from advantaged backgrounds with higher genetic scores for educational attainment tend to show greater risk tolerance and patience, traits that facilitate seizing opportunities, investing in the future and achieving upward mobility, as well as positively impacting on health and other life outcomes.
People from disadvantaged backgrounds show a different pattern. The same genetic predispositions are channeled toward heightened caution and a focus on immediate needs, helping to navigate threat, uncertainty and scarcity but often leading to conservative choices that prioritize survival over long-term gains.
Chris Dawson, Professor of Economics and Behavioral Science from the University of Bath’s School of Management, said: “The research shows that the 'biological blueprints' for success are often rewritten by poverty. While some are born with a genetic predisposition for high attainment, early-life adversity can shift this predisposition toward survival strategies that prioritize the 'now' over the 'future,' creating a hidden barrier to social mobility.
“People from advantaged backgrounds can use their genetic head start to take calculated risks and delay gratification, supporting upward mobility. In disadvantaged environments people are focused on managing threat and uncertainty and are more sensitive to loss.”
Risk-taking and patience influence major life decisions such as pursuing higher education, investing in career opportunities, entrepreneurship, or long-term financial planning – decisions that drive socioeconomic outcomes and intergenerational mobility.
Professor Dawson analyzed genetic, behavioral, and background data from tens of thousands of UK adults of European ancestry drawn from a large national cohort (English Longitudinal Study of Ageing).
He calculated polygenic scores for educational attainment to capture genetic propensity for learning and academic success. These scores were then linked to adult economic preferences, including risk tolerance, loss aversion and time preferences – the tendency to prioritize immediate versus future rewards.
Childhood socioeconomic conditions were included to test whether early-life advantage or disadvantage changes how these genetic predispositions are expressed. Analyses controlled for age, sex, and population structure.
Published in journal: Communications Psychology
Authors: Chris Dawson
Source/Credit: University of Bath
Reference Number: bs021626_01