Genes influence economic decision-making

A team led by Jonathan Roiser (UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience) has today published research which shows that our genes affect the decisions we make, and that these decisions are influenced by the positive or negative framing of the options on offer. This phenomenon is known as the 'framing effect'. For example, how would patients respond if they were told they had an 80% chance of surviving an operation? How many would consent if told that they had a 20% chance of dying? Research published in the current issue of the Journal of Neuroscience shows that the extent to which individuals are influenced by framing may partly depend on their genetic make-up, as is the response of the amygdala, an area of the brain involved in processing emotions, which becomes active during decisions influenced by the framing effect. Roiser commented: 'We know that people from across a variety of cultures are susceptible to biases when making decisions, and that even with training these biases are hard to overcome. This implies that hard-wired genetic influences might play an important role in determining how susceptible different individuals are to the framing effect.' In the study, Roiser and colleagues showed that decision-making is affected by variation in the serotonin transporter gene, which several previous studies have noted also influences the response of the amygdala. The gene codes for a protein involved in the recycling of serotonin, a neurotransmitter essential for communication between nerve cells.