There’s a useful saying in the world of genetics: DNA isn’t destiny. While genetics does play a big role in who you are, they don’t control everything. That said, scientists recently found over 1,000 genetic variants that are linked to all sorts of personality traits like neuroticism, anxiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and several other traits we can likely blame on or thank our genes for.According to a massive new study published in Nature, an international team led by Michigan State University’s Ted Schwaba analyzed over one million genomes across 46 research cohorts. They mapped 1,260 genetic markers associated with the “Big Five” personality traits: extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience.Your Genes May Help Explain Why You’re Anxious, Outgoing or AgreeableHere’s why DNA isn’t destiny: these tiny DNA variations account for only about 5 to 10 percent of why you turned out to be the disaster that you are. Everything else is environment, your upbringing, and life’s randomness. DNA is more likely laying groundwork than it is pulling all of the strings of your life like a puppeteer.Maybe the most fascinating find is in how tiny genetic changes can ripple across your personality, causing chain reactions that at least partially explain why you are who you are. Variants linked to extraversion, for instance, seem to protect against depression but increase your odds of ADHD. Again, DNA isn’t destiny, and yet the researchers found that people with high genetic scores for conscientiousness generally exercise more, sleep better, make more money, and move to affluent suburbs by age 50. If you’re loaded with variants that trigger neuroticism, it probably shows up in any number of your psychiatric conditions, though, weirdly, the research says the variants don’t really mess with your serotonin levels.Extraversion-linked variants seem to cushion against depression while bumping up your odds of ADHD. High conscientiousness scores predict whether you’ll exercise, sleep well, or move to the suburbs by age 50. Meanwhile, neuroticism variants trigger emotional self-doubt and show up across a dozen psychiatric conditions—though, surprisingly, they don’t seem to care much about your brain’s serotonin levels.All told, the recurring theme of the research is that your genes lay the groundwork for who you are, but what you do with them, who you eventually become, is overwhelmingly determined by everything else in life—your upbringing, your home life, your relationship with your friends and family, your influences. Everything. Genes provide a rough draft, and life does the editing.The post Your Personality May Be Written Into Your DNA More Than We Realized, New Study Finds appeared first on VICE.