Overlap Between the General Factor of Personality and Trait Emotional Intelligence: A Genetic Correlation Study.

A previous meta-analysis (Van der Linden et al., Psychol Bull 143:36-52, 2017) showed that the General Factor of Personality (GFP) overlaps with ability as well as trait emotional intelligence (EI). The correlation between trait EI and the GFP was so high (ρ = 0.88) in that meta-analysis that these two may be considered virtually identical constructs. The present study builds on these findings by examining whether the strong phenotypic correlation between the GFP and trait EI has a genetic component. In a sample of monozygotic and dizygotic twins, the heritability estimates for the GFP and trait EI were 53 and 45%, respectively. Moreover, there was a strong genetic correlation of r = .90 between the GFP and trait EI. Additional analyses suggested that a substantial proportion of the genetic correlations reflects non-additive genetic effects (e.g., dominance and epistasis). These findings are discussed in light of evolutionary accounts of the GFP.

How do emotional restrictions affect the use of humor? A behavior genetic analysis of alexithymia and humor styles.

This article reports the first behavioral genetic study of relationships between alexithymia and four styles of humor: affiliative, self-enhancing, self-defeating, and aggressive. A total of 509 MZ pairs and 264 DZ pairs of twins completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20) and the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ). Consistent with our predictions, alexithymia correlated negatively with affiliative and self-enhancing humor and positively with self-defeating and aggressive humor. All but one of the 16 phenotypic correlations that we report are significant at the 0.01 level. Also consistent with our predictions, the phenotypic correlations between alexithymia and humor styles were primarily attributable to correlated genetic factors and to a lesser extent to correlated non-shared environmental factors. Correlated shared environmental factors had no significant effect. Implications and limitations of this study are discussed.

Beyond humor styles: the nature of humor types and differences in basic personality traits from Zuckerman's Alternative Five-Factor Model.

BACKGROUND: Findings show that the complex nature of humor and its personality basis can be more comprehensively understood if humor styles are analyzed simultaneously within humor types, rather than separately. PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE: Utilizing two independent samples (N1 = 253, N2 = 353) of self-report responses to the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) and the Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Aluja Personality Questionnaire-Short Form, this paper outlines how the HSQ responses result in three humor use types following cluster analysis. Cluster differences in humor styles and personality traits were analyzed using ANOVA. RESULTS: In both samples, a humor type characteristic of individuals who scored lower in the positive and higher in the negative humor styles was revealed. People within this humor type also scored significantly higher in the personality measures of neuroticism and aggressiveness. A second humor type replicated in the two studies described individuals scoring higher for each of the four humor styles. People within this type also scored significantly higher on extraversion and sensation seeking, suggesting a need for cortical arousal. The third humor type members scored lower in each of the humor styles (apart from the affiliative humor style scores for one of the samples). This humor type requires further investigation. CONCLUSIONS: In general, humor types provide an additional understanding of humor use as people within the types differ for specific personality dimensions.

A behavioral genetic study of humor styles in an Australian sample.

The present study investigated the extent to which individual differences in humor styles are attributable to genetic and/or environmental factors in an Australian sample. Participants were 934 same-sex pairs of adult twins from the Australian Twin Registry (546 monozygotic pairs, 388 dizygotic pairs) who completed the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ). The HSQ measures four distinct styles of humor - affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating. Results revealed that additive genetic and non-shared environmental factors accounted for the variance in all four humor styles, thus replicating results previously obtained in a sample of twins from the United Kingdom. However, a study conducted with a U.S. sample produced different results and we interpret these findings in terms of cross-cultural differences in humor.