Saturday, June 20, 2015

The Leadership Gene: DAT1

We take dopamine very seriously, some links below.
From ScienceDaily:

Genes may influence leadership in the workplace
Date: May 19, 2015
Source: Kansas State University
The right genes may help you become an organization's next president or CEO. But the same genes may also hinder your leadership path, according to Kansas State University psychological sciences research.

Wendong Li, assistant professor of psychological sciences, and collaborators have found a "mixed blessing" for workers who hold workplace leadership positions, from the formal leader of a CEO to an informal group leader. Their study focused on the dopamine transporter gene DAT1, which can influence leadership and is important for reward and motivation systems in humans.

"It's like a mixed blessing -- this gene can have both positive and negative effects on leadership," Li said. "An implication is that it really depends on environmental factors to determine if overall it is a positive or negative."...MORE
HT: The Next Web's "What makes a good leader great?".

Previously:

New York Fed On "Anxiety, Overconfidence, and Excessive Risk Taking" (pathological gambling and self-manipulation with booze and blow)
"New research suggests link between genetics, Wall Street success"
Your genes affect your betting behavior
Your Brain and Financial Bubbles
Berlusconi Blames Stock Market Volatility On Cocaine (and a look at neurotransmitters) 
The Internet, Deflation and Depression
...Further, the newspapers likened the changes to those seen in cocaine abusers but went on to describe something quite different from my understanding of what blow does to the reward pathways, overexciting the dopamine cascade until the various D receptors no longer react to dopamine and eventually leading to anhedonia. The big A is often concurrent with and like anxiety, may even kindle for, depression.
Don't worry, be happy.
See also "Pleasure Dissociative Orgasmic Disorder"