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Social Adversity Reduces Polygenic Score Expressivity for General Cognitive Ability, but Not Height.

Mateo Peñaherrera-Aguirre1, Michael A Woodley2, Matthew A Sarraf3

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Summary

Polygenic scores for educational attainment show gene-environment interactions with socioeconomic status and discrimination, impacting general cognitive ability. These interactions highlight social factors influencing genetic expression in diverse groups.

Keywords:
ExpressivityScarr-Rowe effectgene-by-environment interactiongeneral cognitive abilitysocial adversity

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Area of Science:

  • Behavioral Genetics
  • Social Genomics
  • Psychometrics

Background:

  • Polygenic scores (PGSs) theoretically predict traits but may not generalize across diverse social groups.
  • Gene-environment interactions (GxE) can alter how genetic variants are expressed.
  • Social adversity, including socioeconomic status (SES) and discrimination, may influence GxE.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate GxE interactions between a polygenic score for educational attainment (PGSEDU) and social adversity (SES, discrimination) on general cognitive ability (GCA).
  • To examine if these interactions are specific to socially influenced traits or also affect socially neutral traits like height.
  • To assess the heritability of discrimination experiences.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of a large, representative US cohort with genetic and phenotypic data.
  • Statistical modeling to test interactions between PGSEDU, SES, and discrimination predicting GCA and height.
  • Behavior-genetic analysis of self-reported discrimination.

Main Results:

  • A small Scarr-Rowe effect (SES × PGSEDU interaction) and a distinct discrimination × PGSEDU interaction predicting GCA were observed.
  • These interactions were independent of ancestral principal components and other main effects.
  • No significant interactions were found for height, suggesting trait specificity.
  • Self-reported discrimination showed negligible heritability (h² ≈ 0.03).

Conclusions:

  • Gene-environment interactions involving social adversity modify the expression of educational attainment polygenic scores.
  • Discrimination experiences appear to be primarily influenced by social factors rather than heritability.
  • Findings support environmental explanations for group differences in cognitive abilities and challenge the universal portability of PGSs.