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NeuroImage 213 (2020) 116681

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NeuroImage

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/neuroimage

Genetic susceptibility to parenting style: DRD2 and COMT
influence creativity

**
Si Si, Yukang Su, Shun Zhang , Jinghuan Zhang *
Department of Psychology, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, China

AR T I C L E I NF O AB S T RA C T
Keywords: The present study systematically investigated if genetic variations in the DRD2 and COMT interacted with
Creativity parenting style to predict individual differences in creativity. In a sample of young adults, we first examined the
DRD2 interaction of each individual polymorphism and parenting style on creativity. Then, we aggregated the contri-
COMT
bution of these susceptibility polymorphisms into a Cumulative Genetic Score (CGS) which combines the plas-
Cumulative genetic score (CGS)
ticity conferred by two or more single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of DRD2 and COMT into a single score.
Gene-environment interaction
When polymorphisms were examined in isolation, the results indicated there were only two polymorphisms from
Differential susceptibility model
COMT (rs5993882 and rs5993883), which were found to interact with mother authoritativeness to predict
creativity. However, a CGS comprising of several potential susceptibility polymorphisms from DRD2 and COMT
genes did indeed interact with parenting style to explain a significant amount of variance in the creativity.
Furthermore, the analysis of regions of significance (Ros) showed supporting evidences for differential suscep-
tibility model, such that the individuals with high CGS were more likely to be affected by their both negative and
positive parenting style, demonstrating higher and lower creativity. These results further provide evidence for the
involvement of dopaminergic genes in the relationship between parenting style and creativity and suggest in-
dividuals with the greater susceptibility are the ones who are more susceptible to environmental influences.

1. Introduction extremely tolerate their impulses. Authoritative parents tend to behave
between the two extremes, encouraging personal independence and
Creativity has been defined as the way of thinking that leads to feelings expression but also setting reasonable limits. Many theoretical
original, yet potentially useful outcomes (Mumford, 2003). It brings perspectives have argued, creativity is fostered in environments that
humans numerous benefits, such as leading or adapting to changes, provide psychological safety and freedom (Erikson, 1963; Rank, cited in
increasing social standing, and making high quality decisions (Nijstad Harrington et al., 1987; Rogers, 1970). Therefore, parental authorita-
et al., 2010; Runco, 2004; Sternberg, 1999). Therefore, nurturing the tiveness and permissiveness which are characterized as high level of
creativity is essential in preparing individuals for a better life and has autonomy are inclined to lead to higher creativity; parental authoritari-
been the long-standing goal of the whole society. Given its importance, a anism, by contrast, which is characterized as high level of control has
number of studies have been conducted to identify the underlying been demonstrated to result in lower creativity (Mozafari, 2014; Meh-
mechanism that contributes to creative thinking and extensive research rinejad et al., 2015; Nichols, 1964; Miller et al., 2012). However, the
has found that family, especially the parenting style, is one well studied relationships between parenting styles and creativity are still inconclu-
source of influence of creativity (Kemple and Nissenberg, 2000; Sen and sive. For example, there was evidence showing that not all individuals
Sharma, 2013). exposed to authoritative and permissive parenting would be more crea-
Parenting style refers to the emotional and behavioral interaction tive (Fearon et al., 2013; Mehrinejad et al., 2015). Some individuals with
made by parents with their children. According to Baumrind (1966), permissive parenting were even found to be less creative than their
there were three main types of parenting, namely authoritarian, counterparts (Mozafari, 2014).
permissive and authoritative. The authoritarian parents over-control One of the possible reasons for these inconsistent results is that in-
their child’s behavior and attitudes while permissive parents often dividuals are differently affected by their rearing experience. Different

* Corresponding author. Department of Psychology, Shandong Normal University, No. 88 East Wenhua Road, Jinan, 250014, China.
** Corresponding author. Department of Psychology, Shandong Normal University, No. 88 East Wenhua Road, Jinan, 250014, China.
E-mail addresses: sisi52144@163.com (S. Si), yukangsu@126.com (Y. Su), yinxingren1986@hotmail.com (S. Zhang), zhangjinghuan@sdnu.edu.cn (J. Zhang).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116681
Received 31 July 2019; Received in revised form 21 February 2020; Accepted 24 February 2020
Available online 28 February 2020
1053-8119/© 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
nc-nd/4.0/).