“Not only in my genes: The effects of peers’ genotype on obesity”

In this study, published in the Journal of Health Economics, Giorgio Brunello from the Department of Economics and Management of the University of Padova, Anna Sanz-de-Galdeano from the University of Alicante (Spain) and Anastasia Terskaya from CRES-UPF (Spain) used data from three waves of Add Health to study the short- and long-run effects of high school peers’ genetic predisposition to high BMI on adolescent and adult obesity in the U.S. In the short- run, a one standard deviation increase in peers’ average BMI polygenic scores raises the probability of obesity for females by 2.8% points, about half the size of the effect induced by a one standard deviation increase in one’s own polygenic score. No significant effect is found for males. In the long-run, however, the social-genetic effect fades away, while the effect of one’s own genetic risk for BMI increases substantially. Suggested mechanisms explaining the short-run effect for females include changes in nutrition habits and a distorted perception of body size. 

Read the full article here https://bit.ly/paper_giorgiobrunello