ArticlePsychological science2012
Most reported genetic associations with general intelligence are probably false positives.
Article in Psychological science, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 96 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
96 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Genome-wide association study in 404,302 individuals identifies 7 significant loci for reaction time variability.Molecular psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- Genome-wide association meta-analysis of 78,308 individuals identifies new loci and genes influencing human intelligence.Nature genetics · 2017Pooled it
- Heritability and Genome-Wide Association Analyses of Sleep Duration in Children: The EAGLE Consortium.Sleep · 2016Pooled it
- Independent evidence for an association between general cognitive ability and a genetic locus for educational attainment.American journal of medical genetics. Part B, Neuropsychiatric genetics : the official publication of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics · 2015Pooled it
- Common genetic variants associated with cognitive performance identified using the proxy-phenotype method.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2014Pooled it
- Childhood intelligence is heritable, highly polygenic and associated with FNBP1L.Molecular psychiatry · 2014Pooled it
- The molecular genetic architecture of self-employment.PloS one · 2013Pooled it
- Effect of Trinucleotide Repeats in the Huntington's Gene on Intelligence.EBioMedicine · 2018Trial
- Trial
- Does performance invalidity undermine replication? Evidence from an undergraduate student participant sample.Archives of clinical neuropsychology : the official journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists · 2026Article
- Association ofAlpha psychiatry · 2025Article
- The Genetics of Intelligence.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2025Review
- mi-Mic: a novel multi-layer statistical test for microbiota-disease associations.Genome biology · 2024Article
- Multivariate prediction of cognitive performance from the sleep electroencephalogram.NeuroImage · 2023Article
- Celebrating a Century of Research in Behavioral Genetics.Behavior genetics · 2023Review
- A multi-faceted role of dual-state dopamine signaling in working memory, attentional control, and intelligence.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2023Review
- The next 10 years of behavioural genomic research.JCPP advances · 2022Article
- The relationship between temperament, polygenic score for intelligence and cognition: A population-based study of middle-aged adults.Genes, brain, and behavior · 2022Article
- Genetic variation, brain, and intelligence differences.Molecular psychiatry · 2022Review
- "Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated": Behavior Genetics in the Postgenomic Era.Annual review of psychology · 2021Review
36 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
15 authors.
Funding
Abstract
General intelligence (g) and virtually all other behavioral traits are heritable. Associations between g and specific single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in several candidate genes involved in brain function have been reported. We sought to replicate published associations between g and 12 specific genetic variants (in the genes DTNBP1, CTSD, DRD2, ANKK1, CHRM2, SSADH, COMT, BDNF, CHRNA4, DISC1, APOE, and SNAP25) using data sets from three independent, well-characterized longitudinal studies with samples of 5,571, 1,759, and 2,441 individuals. Of 32 independent tests across all three data sets, only 1 was nominally significant. By contrast, power analyses showed that we should have expected 10 to 15 significant associations, given reasonable assumptions for genotype effect sizes. For positive controls, we confirmed accepted genetic associations for Alzheimer's disease and body mass index, and we used SNP-based calculations of genetic relatedness to replicate previous estimates that about half of the variance in g is accounted for by common genetic variation among individuals. We conclude that the molecular genetics of psychology and social science requires approaches that go beyond the examination of candidate genes.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.