Genetic Determinants of Financial Risk Taking

This is a cool find:

For the first time, Kuhnen and Chiao (2009) examined the influence of genes that regulate dopamine and serotonin neurotransmission on risk-taking in financial investment decisions. The exciting result is that people with the short serotonin transporter gene, 5-HTTLPR (two copies of the short allele), relative to those with the long version of that polymorphism (at least one copy of the long allele), invested 28% less in a risky investment. And people who carry the 7-repeat allele of the DRD4 gene in the dopamine family, relative to those carrying other versions of that gene, invested about 25% more in a risky investment.