ArticleScience advances2020
Population phenomena inflate genetic associations of complex social traits.
Article in Science advances, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 101 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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Who cites it
101 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Role of lifestyle factors in mediating the effect of educational attainment on bone mineral density: a Mendelian randomization study.Archives of osteoporosis · 2023Pooled it
- Overcoming attenuation bias in regressions using polygenic indices.Nature communications · 2023Pooled it
- Causal effects of psychosocial factors on chronic back pain: a bidirectional Mendelian randomisation study.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2022Pooled it
- Robust genetic nurture effects on education: A systematic review and meta-analysis based on 38,654 families across 8 cohorts.American journal of human genetics · 2021Pooled it
- How are social determinants of health integrated into epigenetic research? A systematic review.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2021Pooled it
- The Sociogenomics of Social Stratification and General Theories of Inequality.The British journal of sociology · 2026Article
- Neurobehavioural genes exert indirect genetic effects on blood lipid profiles through behavioural traits.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Article
- PEStimate: predicting offspring disease risk after polygenic embryo screening.Bioinformatics (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- Causal inference in psychiatric research: how to critically evaluate and interpret mendelian randomization studies.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Review
- Estimation of direct and indirect polygenic effects and gene-environment interactions using polygenic scores in case-parent trio studies.Nature genetics · 2026Article
- Non-cognitive skills mediate education-related polygenic score associations with academic achievement across development.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Exploring genetic confounding of the associations between screen time and depressive symptoms in adolescence and early adulthood.International journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- A quantitative genetic model for indirect genetic effects and genomic imprinting under random and assortative mating.Genetics · 2026Article
- Within- and between-family genetic effects on educational achievement vary across countries and ages.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- A pattern-learning algorithm associates copy number variations with brain structure and behavioural variables in an adolescent population cohort.Nature biomedical engineering · 2026Article
- Genetic associations with education have increased and are patterned by socioeconomic context: Evidence from 3 studies born 1946-1970.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Assessing the impact of maternal blood pressure during pregnancy on perinatal health: a wide-angled Mendelian randomization study.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- The Economics and Econometrics of Gene-Environment Interplay.The Review of economic studies · 2026Article
- Polygenic risk and trajectories of depressive symptoms in diverse adolescents: Gene-environment interplay with family conflict and parental acceptance.Development and psychopathology · 2025Article
41 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Heritability, genetic correlation, and genetic associations estimated from samples of unrelated individuals are often perceived as confirmation that genotype causes the phenotype(s). However, these estimates can arise from indirect mechanisms due to population phenomena including population stratification, dynastic effects, and assortative mating. We introduce these, describe how they can bias or inflate genotype-phenotype associations, and demonstrate methods that can be used to assess their presence. Using data on educational achievement and parental socioeconomic position as an exemplar, we demonstrate that both heritability and genetic correlation may be biased estimates of the causal contribution of genotype. These results highlight the limitations of genotype-phenotype estimates obtained from samples of unrelated individuals. Use of these methods in combination with family-based designs may offer researchers greater opportunities to explore the mechanisms driving genotype-phenotype associations and identify factors underlying bias in estimates.
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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.