Polygenic scores are measures used by researchers to estimate our genetic predispositions to developing diseases, particularly neuropsychiatric diseases.
In a new study, published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour (Source 1), researchers used these neuropsychiatric polygenic scores to see whether or not they could predict an individual’s career field.
According to the results of this large study, carried out on data from 421,889 people, using the Million Veteran Program and the UK Biobank databases, these polygenic scores do little to predict an individual’s professional category. In other words, we cannot rely solely on these scores to predict or guess with certainty about someone’s work. However, subtle links are visible.
Weak links, but very present
“Even though these effects are small, we were able to detect them reliably because we studied a large number of people”, said Georgios Voloudakis, first author of the study, in a press release (Source 2). “These results do not mean that we can predict a person’s employment based on their genetics. Rather, they highlight subtle group-level trends. On average, people with a higher polygenic score for certain traits might have slightly more likely…
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