News
My Friend, My Kin
A study published on Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) claims that that we are more genetically similar to our friends than we are to strangers.
Prof James Fowler from the University of California, San Diego, and Prof Nicholas Christakis from Yale University are the author of the project. They analysed nearly 500,000 single-letter markers from across the genome.
As well as providing DNA samples, participants were asked who their closest friends were. And since the study started in a small community, many people that were named as friends, also happened to be involved in the study.
The team calculated a "kinship coefficient" using the genetic markers from pairs of friends and strangers, and found that it was slightly higher among friends. Indeed friends shared about 0.1% more DNA, on average, than strangers - the same level of similarity to be expected among fourth cousins.
"Most people don't even know who their fourth cousins are!" said Prof Christakis. "Yet we are somehow, among a myriad of possibilities, managing to select as friends the people who resemble our kin."
Prof James Fowler from the University of California, San Diego, and Prof Nicholas Christakis from Yale University are the author of the project. They analysed nearly 500,000 single-letter markers from across the genome.
As well as providing DNA samples, participants were asked who their closest friends were. And since the study started in a small community, many people that were named as friends, also happened to be involved in the study.
The team calculated a "kinship coefficient" using the genetic markers from pairs of friends and strangers, and found that it was slightly higher among friends. Indeed friends shared about 0.1% more DNA, on average, than strangers - the same level of similarity to be expected among fourth cousins.
"Most people don't even know who their fourth cousins are!" said Prof Christakis. "Yet we are somehow, among a myriad of possibilities, managing to select as friends the people who resemble our kin."