社会科学研究认为,个人文学和文化品味的差异源于社会环境。然而,这些差异可能部分与个体之间的遗传差异有关。为了解决这种可能性,我们使用丹麦双胞胎(N=67,900)中图书馆借阅的国家规模注册数据来评估文学品味的遗传力。我们通过借用不同类型的书籍来衡量文学品味(例如,犯罪和传记小说)和格式(物理,数字,和音频),并将文学品味的总方差分解为可归因于共享基因的成分(遗传力),共享环境(兄弟姐妹共享的社会环境),和独特的环境(兄弟姐妹不共享的社会环境)。我们发现遗传差异占文学品味总变异的45-70%,共享环境几乎不占任何差异,和独特的环境占适度的份额。这些结果表明,文学品味与其他人类表型大致一样可遗传(例如,身体特征,认知,和健康)。此外,社会经济弱势群体的遗传力高于弱势群体。总的来说,我们的研究结果表明,研究应该考虑遗传差异在解释文学和更广泛的文化品味中的个体差异方面的作用。
Social science research argues that differences in individuals\' literary and cultural tastes originate in social environments. Yet, it might be that these differences are partly associated with genetic differences between individuals. To address this possibility, we use nation-scale registry data on library borrowing among Danish twins (N = 67,900) to assess the heritability of literary tastes. We measure literary tastes via borrowing of books of different genres (e.g., crime and biographical novels) and formats (physical, digital, and audio) and decompose the total variance in literary tastes into components attributable to shared genes (heritability), shared environments (social environment shared by siblings), and unique environments (social environments not shared by siblings). We find that genetic differences account for 45-70 percent of the total variance in literary tastes, shared environments account for almost none of the variance, and unique environments account for a moderate share. These results suggest that literary tastes are approximately as heritable as other human phenotypes (e.g., physical traits, cognition, and health). Moreover, heritability is higher for socioeconomically disadvantaged groups than for advantaged groups. Overall, our results suggest that research should consider the role of genetic differences in accounting for individual differences in literary and broader cultural tastes.