The name is absent

Happy Is As Happy Does

We also found a correlation of only .13 for 50 pairs of fraternal or DZ twins reared apart.

One expects the DZ correlation on metrical traits, traits such as stature, to be at least half as large
as the MZ correlation, and more than half if there is assortative mating for the trait studied. This
low DZ correlation suggests that the genetic mechanism underlying trait-happiness is epistatic, in
which the polygenes involved combine Configurally rather than additively as they seem to do for
stature. I call such traits “e/nergenfc ” traits and the interesting thing about them is that, while
they clearly have strong genetic roots, such traits run in families only weakly.

Table 1. Within-pair correlations on the MPQ Well Being scale.

We knew early on that such findings from Bouchard’s study would have to be replicated on
much larger samples of garden-variety twins reared together. For this purpose we established the
Minnesota Twin Registry by ascertaining from birth records all the twins born in Minnesota from
1936 through 1955. Then we tracked down most of the surviving intact pairs and recruiting them
to participate in the Registry. The slide shows that the replication of the happiness findings
worked quite well on large samples of these middle-aged Registry twins. The true MZ
correlation is very close to ,44 and the true DZ value very close to .08.

One fact about many psychological traits that is often overlooked by behavior geneticists is
easy to see in the case of subjective well-being. Most psychological traits, and certainly
happiness, are not a constant but, instead, they vary from time to time in response to local
circumstances. This is the familiar State:Trait distinction but what is overlooked is that most of
what are alleged to be trait measures vary over time as a function of the subject’s current or
recent state. Trait measures of happiness vary in response to the slings and arrows of outrageous

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