Study fines niceness may be genetic

Being nice may be in your genes. A new study finds that genes are at least part of the reason some people are kind and generous.

Researchers at the University at Buffalo and the University of California, Irvine, assessed the behavior of people with different versions of receptor genes for two hormones, oxytocin and vasopressin, believed to make people nicer.

"Study participants who found the world threatening were less likely to help others, unless they had versions of the receptor genes that are generally associated with niceness," said principal author Micheal Poulin, an assistant professor of psychology at the University at Buffalo.

The "nicer" versions of the receptor genes "allow you to overcome feelings of the world being threatening and help other people in spite of those fears," he said.

The study was released online in advance of publication in the journal Psychological Science.

"If one of your neighbors seems a really generous, caring, civic-minded kind of person, while another seems more selfish, tight-fisted and not as interested in pitching in, their DNA may help explain why one of them is nicer than the other," Poulin noted. ---- HealthDay