Science: Altruism Gene Found?

Society | January 21, 2005, Friday // 00:00

Israeli researchers announced they identified the first gene linked to altruistic behavior believed to boost receptors for the neurotransmitter dopamine, which gives the brain a good feeling.

The discovery of the gene variant on chromosome No 11 is reported in the advance on-line edition of the journal Molecular Psychiatry by.

According to Prof. Richard Ebstein, a psychologist, who headed a team that in the 1990s discovered a "risk-taking gene", and colleagues at the Hebrew University and Herzog Memorial Hospital in Jerusalem, the source of altruism - in which someone sacrifices his own interests to benefit others - has been an important question in evolutionary theory for many years.

Ebstein said about two-thirds of the random sample carry the altruism gene. Interestingly, the risk-taking gene, which is linked to a tendency for taking drugs, smoking and other dangerous behavior, is a different - or opposite - variant of the altruism gene. Instead of promoting dopamine expression, the risk-taking gene variant reduces it.

The researchers took blood samples from 354 families with multiple siblings and asked them questions to rate them on the Selflessness Scale, a measure of altruistic behavior.

Ebstein is certain that this is only the first altruism gene, and that several others exist. One would not expect altruism to have an evolutionary benefit because the altruistic person promotes other people's survival by taking risks that could endanger his own, he said.

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