According to a recent study, the level of affection expressed by women, to an extent, can be understood by analysing genetics and their environment. However, the same cannot be said for men.
The study, published in Communication Monographs, was led by Kory Floyd, a professor in the University Arizona Department of Communication in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
“The question that drove the study was: Recognizing that some people are more affectionate than others, what accounts for that variation, and is any part of that variation genetic?” said Floyd, whose research focuses on the communication of affection in close relationships and its effects on stress and physiological functioning.
“A study like this makes room for us to talk about the possibility that a number of social and behavioural traits that we automatically assume are learned may also have a genetic component,” Floyd added.
Floyd and his collaborators studied 464 pairs of adult twins – about half identical and half fraternal – between the ages 19 and 84.
Twin studies often are used to look at how environmental and genetic factors influence specific traits. Because twins typically are raised in the same household, they have usually had very similar upbringings and early experiences.
However, twins’ genetic similarities vary based on what type of twins they are. While identical twins share 100 per cent of their genetic material, fraternal twins share only 50 per cent – the same as regular siblings.
Each participant in the study rated a series of statements designed to measure how much affection they typically express. The researchers then looked at how similar each twin pair’s responses were.
The identical twin pairs scored more similarly than the fraternal twin pairs – at least in the case of women – suggesting that there is, in fact, a genetic component to affectionate behaviour. (ANI)
