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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
1Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
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.
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.
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