Dopamine D4 Receptor Gene and Religious Affiliation Correlate with Dictator Game Altruism in Males and not Females: Evidence for Gender-sensitive Gene x Culture Interaction

• Main Authors: Yushi eJiang, Rachel eBachner-Melman, Soo Hong eChew, Richard Paul Ebstein
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2015-09-01
• Series: Frontiers in Neuroscience
• Subjects: Religion; Altruism; Gene-culture coevolution; differential susceptibility; dopamine D4 receptor
• Online Access: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnins.2015.00338/full

On a large sample of 2288 Han Chinese undergraduates, we investigated how religion and DRD4 are related to human altruistic giving behavior as measured with the Andreoni-Miller Dictator Game. This game enables us to clearly specify (non-)selfishness, efficiency, and fairness motives for sharing. Participants were further classified into religious categories (Christian, Buddhist-Tao, and No Religion) based on self-reports, and genotyped for the dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) gene exon III VNTR. Our analysis revealed a significant interaction between religion and DRD4 correlated with giving behavior solely among males: Whereas no significant association between religion and sharing decisions was observed in the majority 4R/4R genotype group, a significant difference in giving behavior between Christian and non-Christian males was seen in the non-4R/4R group, with Christian men being overall more altruistic (less selfish and fairer) than non-Christian men. These results support the vantage sensitivity hypothesis regarding DRD4 that the non-4R/4R ‘susceptibility’ genotype is more responsive to a positive environment provided by some religions.