Skip to main content
Log in

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Risky Sexual Behaviour and its Relationship With Personality

  • Original Research
  • Published:
Behavior Genetics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Risky sexual behaviour is a major health issue in society, and it is therefore important to understand factors that may predispose individuals to such behaviour. Research suggests a link between risky sexual behaviour and personality, but the basis of this link remains unknown. Hans Eysenck proposed that personality is related to sexual behaviour via biological underpinnings of both. Here we test the viability of this perspective by analysing data from identical and non-identical twins (N = 4,904) who completed a questionnaire assessing sexual attitudes and behaviour as well as personality. Using genetic modelling of the twin data, we found that risky sexual behaviour was significantly positively correlated with Impulsivity (r = .27), Extraversion (r = .24), Psychoticism (r = .20), and Neuroticism (r = .09), and that in each case the correlation was due primarily to overlapping genetic influences. These findings suggest that the genetic influences that shape our personality may also predispose us to risky sexual behaviour.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abma JC, Sonenstein FL (2001) Sexual activity and contraceptive practices among teenagers in the United States, 1988 and 1995

  • Aral SO (2001) Sexually transmitted diseases: magnitude, determinants and consequences. Int J STD AIDS 12(4):211–215

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bricker JB, Stallings MC, Corley RP, Wadsworth SJ, Bryan A, Timberlake DS et al (2006) Genetic and environmental influences on age at sexual initiation in the Colorado Adoption Project. Behav Genet 36(6):820–832

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cook RL, Clark DB (2005) Is there an association between alcohol consumption and sexually transmitted diseases? A systematic review. Sex Transm Dis 32(3):156–164

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Darroch JE, Frost JJ, Singh S (2001) Can more progress be made? Teenage sexual and reproductive behavior in developed countries. The Alan Guttmacher Institute, New York

  • Delgado-Rodriguez M, Gomez-Olmedo M, Bueno-Cavanillas A, Galvez-Vargas R (1997) Unplanned pregnancy as a major determinant in inadequate use of prenatal care. Prev Med 26(6):834–838

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Duffy DL, Martin NG (1994) Inferring the direction of causation in cross-sectional twin data: theoretical and empirical considerations. Genet Epidemiol 11(6):483–502

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dunne MP, Martin NG, Statham DJ, Slutske WS, Dinwiddie SH, Bucholz KK et al (1997) Genetic and environmental contributions to variance in age at first sexual intercourse. Psychol Sci 8(3):211–216

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eysenck HJ (1976) Sex and personality. Open Books, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Eysenck SBG, Eysenck HJ (1977) Place of impulsiveness in a dimensional system of personality description. British J Soc Clin Psychol 16(FEB):57–68

    Google Scholar 

  • Eysenck SBG, Eysenck HJ, Barrett P (1985) A revised version of the psychoticism scale. Pers Individ Differ 6(1):21–29

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fullerton D, Dickson R, Eastwood AJ, Sheldon TA (1997) Preventing unintended teenage pregnancies and reducing their adverse effects. Qual Health Care 6(2):102–108

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Geller PA (2004) Pregnancy as a stressful life event. Cns Spectr 9(3):188–197

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Heath AC, Madden PAF, Martin NG (1998) Assessing the effects of cooperation bias and attrition in behavioral genetic research using data-weighting. Behav Genet 28(6):415–427

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hoyle RH, Fejfar MC, Miller JD (2000) Personality and sexual risk taking: a quantitative review. J Pers 68(6):1203–1231

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jang KL, Livesley WJ, Vernon PA (1996) Heritability of the big five personality dimensions and their facets: a twin study. J Pers 64(3):577–591

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jang KL, Livesley WJ, Angleitner A, Riemann R, Vernon PA (2002) Genetic and environmental influences on the covariance of facets defining the domains of the five-factor model of personality. Pers Individ Differ 33(1):83–101

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loehlin JC (1992) Genes and environment in personality development. Sage, Newbury Park

    Google Scholar 

  • Loehlin JC (1996) The Cholesky approach: a cautionary note. Behav Genet 26(1):65–69

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marston C, King E (2006) Factors that shape young people’s sexual behaviour: a systematic review. Lancet 368(9547):1581–1586

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Martin NG, Martin PG (1975) The inheritance of scholastic abilities in a sample of twins: I. Ascertainment of the sample and diagnosis of zygosity. Ann Hum Genet 39:213–218

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Miller JD, Lynam D, Zimmerman RS, Logan TK, Leukefeld C, Clayton R (2004) The utility of the five factor model in understanding risky sexual behavior. Pers Individ Differ 36(7):1611–1626

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mustanski B, Viken RJ, Kaprio J, Winter T, Rose RJ (2007) Sexual behavior in young adulthood: a population-based twin study. Health Psychol 26(5):610–617

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Neale MC, Cardon LR (1992) Methodology for genetic studies of twins and families. Kluwer, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Neale MC, Eaves LJ, Kendler KS (1994) The power of the classical twin study to resolve variation in threshold traits. Behav Genet 24(3):239–258

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Neale MC, Boker SM, Xie G, Maes HH (2006) Mx: statistical modeling, 7th edn. Department of Psychiatry, Richmond

    Google Scholar 

  • Ooki S, Yamada K, Asaka A, Hayakawa K (1990) Zygosity diagnosis of twins by questionnaire. Acta Genet Med Gemellol 39:109–115

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Posthuma D, Beem AL, de Geus EJC, van Baal GCM, von Hjelmborg JB, Lachine I et al (2003) Theory and practice in quantitative genetics. Twin Res 6(5):361–376

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sato T (2005) The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire brief version: factor structure and reliability. J Psychol 139(6):545–552

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schmitt DP (2004) The big five related to risky sexual behaviour across 10 world regions: differential personality associations of sexual promiscuity and relationship infidelity. Eur J Pers 18(4):301–319

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trobst KK, Herbst JH, Masters HL, Costa PT (2002) Personality pathways to unsafe sex: personality, condom use, and HIV risk behaviors. J Res Pers 36(2):117–133

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Verweij KJH, Zietsch BP, Bailey JM, Martin NG (2009) Shared aetiology of risky sexual behaviour and adolescent misconduct: genetic and environmental influences. Genes Brain Behav 8:107–113

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zietsch BP, Morley KI, Shekar SN, Verweij KJH, Keller MC, Macgregor S et al (2008) Genetic factors predisposing to homosexuality may increase mating success in heterosexuals. Evol Hum Behav 29:424–433

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was funded by a small grant (R03) to J.M.B. from the US Institute of Mental Health (USA) and a small Commonwealth AIDS Research Grant to N. G. M. Twins participating in this study were drawn from the Australian NHMRC Twin Registry.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to B. P. Zietsch.

Additional information

Edited by Michael Lyons.

Appendices

Appendix 1

See Table 5.

Table 5 Raw scale scores assigned to ordinal categories of risky sexual behaviour (RSB), Impulsivity, Extraversion, Psychoticism, and Neuroticism measures, along with the number (and percentage) of males and females that fall into each category

Appendix 2

See Table 6.

Table 6 Twin pair correlations (with 95% confidence intervals) by zygosity group for items in the risky sexual behaviour scale

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Zietsch, B.P., Verweij, K.J.H., Bailey, J.M. et al. Genetic and Environmental Influences on Risky Sexual Behaviour and its Relationship With Personality. Behav Genet 40, 12–21 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-009-9300-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-009-9300-1

Keywords

Navigation