Born To Lead A Twin Design And Genetic 
The Leadership Quarterly 24 (2013) 45–60
Born to lead? A twin design and genetic association study of leadership role occupancy
Jan-Emmanuel De Neve a,b,⁎, Slava Mikhaylov a, Christopher T. Dawes c,
Nicholas A. Christakis d, James H. Fowler e a University College London, UK b Centre for Economic Performance (LSE), UK c New York University, USA d Harvard Medical School, USA e University of California, San Diego, USA
We address leadership emergence and the possibility that there is a partially innate predisposition to occupy a leadership role. Employing twin design methods on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we estimate the heritability of leadership role occupancy at 24%. Twin studies do not point to specific genes or neurological processes that might be involved. We therefore also conduct association analysis on the available genetic
markers. The results show that leadership role occupancy is associated with rs4950, a single
nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) residing on a neuronal acetylcholine receptor gene (CHRNB3). We replicate this family-based genetic association result on an independent sample in the Framingham Heart Study. This is the first study to identify a specific genotype associated with the tendency to occupy a leadership position. The results suggest that what determines whether an individual occupies a leadership position is the complex product of genetic and environmental influences, with a particular role for rs4950..
1. Introduction
A recent special issue in this journal focused on individual difference research in leadership (Leadership and Individual Differences, Volume 23). Mapping out the debate in this area, the editorial for this issue discusses the biological foundations of leadership and asks researchers working in the field an intriguing question: “Is there a specific leadership gene?” (Antonakis, Day, & Schyns, 2012, 646). In this article we address this interesting question.
We focus on one specific
Born to lead? A twin design and genetic association study of leadership role occupancy
Jan-Emmanuel De Neve a,b,⁎, Slava Mikhaylov a, Christopher T. Dawes c,
Nicholas A. Christakis d, James H. Fowler e a University College London, UK b Centre for Economic Performance (LSE), UK c New York University, USA d Harvard Medical School, USA e University of California, San Diego, USA
We address leadership emergence and the possibility that there is a partially innate predisposition to occupy a leadership role. Employing twin design methods on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we estimate the heritability of leadership role occupancy at 24%. Twin studies do not point to specific genes or neurological processes that might be involved. We therefore also conduct association analysis on the available genetic
markers. The results show that leadership role occupancy is associated with rs4950, a single
nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) residing on a neuronal acetylcholine receptor gene (CHRNB3). We replicate this family-based genetic association result on an independent sample in the Framingham Heart Study. This is the first study to identify a specific genotype associated with the tendency to occupy a leadership position. The results suggest that what determines whether an individual occupies a leadership position is the complex product of genetic and environmental influences, with a particular role for rs4950..
1. Introduction
A recent special issue in this journal focused on individual difference research in leadership (Leadership and Individual Differences, Volume 23). Mapping out the debate in this area, the editorial for this issue discusses the biological foundations of leadership and asks researchers working in the field an intriguing question: “Is there a specific leadership gene?” (Antonakis, Day, & Schyns, 2012, 646). In this article we address this interesting question.
We focus on one specific