A Gloomy, Pessimistic Attitude May Have Possible Genetic Basis

          Do you know a person that always sees the glass half empty and has a pessimistic outlook on life?  There is a possible genetic explanation for this.  In a recent article published on USNews.com, it has been found by researchers that a person’s gloomy and negative attitude could possibly be genetic.  The study consisted of showing 200 volunteers positive, negative, and neutral words one after the other and assessing what words the volunteers identified with.  The volunteers who have the ADRA2b gene variant were shown to identify more with the negative words than either the positive or neutral words.  The researchers concluded with this result that people with the ADRA2b gene variant causes them to perceive negative emotional events more strongly than others.  Previously, this same gene variant has already been determined to be involved in creating emotional memories.  So there is no surprise that the variation of this gene would also have a hand in making people be more pessimistic.  According to Professor Rebecca Todd of the University of British Columbia’s department of psychology, “Individuals [with the ADRA2b gene variant] may be more likely to pick out angry faces in a crowd of people.  Outdoors, they might notice potential hazards—places you could slip, loose rocks that might fall—instead of seeing the natural beauty.”  Interestingly enough, the researchers have figured that the ADRA2b gene variant is more common in Caucasians and less common in other ethnicities.  More specifically, more than 50% of Caucasians have the ADRA2b gene variant.  It has been noted that in another recent study, only 10% of Rwandans had the ADRA2b gene variant.  Further studies still have to be done on different ethnicities.  I was curious as to why the ADRA2b gene variant was found to be more common in Caucasians than other ethnicities?  Another question that came to mind while reading this article was does the ADRA2b gene variant have an impact on depression?  Do people who have been diagnosed with depression have this gene variant?  It would be interesting to see if the researchers eventually conduct an experiment on this.  A person’s culture and education are thought to have an impact on his or her attitude and how they view their surroundings, but now we can include a person’s genes as well.  It was interesting to read that not only do genes play a role on how people are physically and physiologically, but can also affect us psychologically.  Unfortunately after reading this article, I now believe that I may carry this gene variant because I often tend to think the worst of a situation.