Associations between Loneliness and Personality are Mostly Driven by a Genetic Association with Neuroticism

OBJECTIVE: Loneliness is an aversive response to a discrepancy between desired and actual social relationships and correlates with personality. We investigate the relationship of loneliness and personality in twin-family and molecular genetic data. METHOD: Phenotypic correlations between loneliness and the Big Five personality traits were estimated in 29,625 adults, and in a group with genome-wide genotype data (N=4,222), genetic correlations were obtained. We explored whether genetic correlations may reflect causal relationships by investigating within monozygotic twin-pair differences (Npair... Mehr ...