Procrastination Is in Your Genes

 

Do you procrastinate and hold things off until the last second? Well according to an article by Alexandra Sifferlin on the NYTimes, procrastination is in your genes. Procrastination comes in different measures; some people are more likely to procrastinate than others. At the University of Colorado, a research was conducted surveying twins to see if procrastination had its roots. So, 181 identical and 166 fraternal twins were surveyed "on their ability to set and maintain goals, propensity to procrastinate and impulsivity." There have also been prior research which has indicated that procrastination and impulsivity are genetically linked. The research concluded that procrastination is genetic; researchers also concluded that "procrastination is an evolutionary by-product of making the rash decisions that go along with being impulsive." I think this article was interesting because it relates to a college student. Even though we try not to procrastinate, sometimes we just don't have enough time. Although we can't blame our procrastination fully on genetics, it gives us a reason to think why we do procrastinate sometimes. 

Procrastinating: it's in your genes

In an article published in a journal of the Association for Psychological Science Daniel Gustavson, a scientist of the University of Colorado Boulder, looks at the genetic linkage of procrastination and impulsivity.  Impulsivity is to act on something without thinking about the severity of the action.  Our ancestors made many impulse decisions because they did not know what the next day would hold for them, while procrastination has emerged much more recent in history.  As people in today's world we make long term goals for ourselves and while trying to reach those goals we can become impulsive and get easily distracted.  Many studies have found that there is a positive relationship between procrastination and impulsivity but it is unclear influences them.

 In Gustavson's study he did not only want to answer of why some people procrastinate and make rash decisions more than others, but wants to go further to explain what procrastination is, why it happens and what can be done to minimize it.  To do this he performs a study with 181 monozygotic twins, who share 100% of their genes, and 166 dizygotic twins who share 50% of their genes.  Each individual took several surveys aimed to measure their tendencies towards procrastination and impulsiveness.  What they found is that both traits are inheritable and that there is a complete genetic overlap between the two.  The linkage between the traits Gustavson and his team look forward to further research investigating how these two traits are related to higher level cognitive abilities.

Exploring the genetics of "I'll do it tomorrow"

This article talks about research published in Psychological Science that suggests that Procrastination and impulsivity are genetically linked. The research question that Daniel Gustavson of the University of Colorado Boulder wanted to explore is why some people procrastinate more than others and why they seem more likely to take rash actions.
The study took 181 identical-twin pairs and 166 fraternal-twin pairs and made them complete several surveys which gauged their tendencies of procrastination and impulsive behaviors. They found that procrastination and impulsivity are not only both heritable but they also complete overlap genetically. This suggests that procrastination is an evolutionary by product of impulsivity.  
Gustavson hopes that studying more of this relationship and the mechanics behind it may lead to interventions to prevent such behavior.
I find this type of research, that overlaps genetics and psychology to be very interesting. It seems that recently, the scientific community has been exploring the evidence that suggests that psychological conditions are passed between generations. This article and one of the articles I discussed before on trauma in mice both support this notion. It is interesting to think the ramifications of this evidence. It begs the question, are we really in control of our emotions and states of mind or are they just a product of evolution and genetics? If we are not in control of emotions and their actions caused by them and they are already "preset" (and likely triggered by the environment around us), the research to learn the underpinnings of emotional actions like impulsivity and procrastination become of utmost interest.

Related Article on Genetic Influence on Human Psychological Traits: http://stormchan.org/study/src/1347441918244.pdf

Is There a Gene for Procrastination?

Everyone has procrastinated something at some time or another. Whether it was reading a book, doing homework, or completing a task at work, but it just never gets done. Some people think it is just a bad habit. Others link procrastination to the word "lazy", but is that really so? Researcher, Daniel Gustavson of the University of Colorado - Boulder found that there may be a genetic reason for procrastination. Researchers came to a conclusion that procrastination and implusivity come from similar origins in our human evolution. They believe that our ancestors acted on impulse, because they were hunters and gatherers, and lived everyday like it was their last; which makes them believe procrastination stemmed from recent family evolution. To prove their findings they used twins as their subject of study, since 100% of their genes are the same. Identical twins and fraternal twins were given a test on impulse and procrastination, and as they expected, the results showed a genetic link between the two. In the future, scientists could use this information to help prevent procrastination if they can find the main reasons behind it and how we can develop techniques to over come it.


Personally,  I think if people start to find out that procrastination is linked to genetics (even if this is the case) then it will give them an even more reason to not complete tasks on time, almost use it as an excuse. I have always just though that procrastination stems from a person's work ethic in which they have instilled in themselves. Some people are motivated, while others are simply not. However, while reading this article, I found it pretty interesting that when the study was done with the twins, they found that procrastination was in fact heritable.

Procrastination and Impulsivity are Genetically Linked

In this article, procrastination and impulsivity are genetically linked.  This suggests that these two traits come from similar evolutionary origins, according to research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.  The research indicates that these traits are related to our ability to successfully pursue and handle goals.  In order to understand these traits, twins were studied.  Identical twins share 100% of their genes and tend to show greater similarities in behavior than fraternal twins, who only share 50% of their genes (just like any other siblings).  Researchers use this genetic discrepancy to their advantage in order to figure out the relative importance of genetic and environmental influences on particular behaviors, like procrastination and impulsivity.  The researchers had 181 identical-twin pairs and 166 fraternal-twin pairs complete several surveys intended to examine their tendencies toward impulsivity and procrastination, as well as their ability to set and maintain goals.  They discovered that procrastination and impulsivity are heritable.  In addition to that, there is a complete genetic overlap between procrastination and impulsivity , meaning there are no genetic influences that are unique to either trait alone.  Basically, procrastination is an evolutionary byproduct of impulsivity which most likely manifests itself more in the modern world than in the world of our ancestors.  Also, the link between procrastination and impulsivity overlapped genetically with the ability to manage goals.  Researchers are now studying how procrastination and impulsivity are related to higher-level cognitive abilities.

Original article: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/275223.php
To learn more about procrastination, visit: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_96.htm