"[P]eople are not blank slates upon which culture-specific experiences inscribe our personalities; rather, we all come into the world with a preprogrammed set of innate mechanisms and personal proclivities. Using a diverse array of methods, including survey research, computer simulations, brain imaging, and population and molecular genetics, researchers have shown that personality traits are highly heritable, replicable across a wide range of cultures and even species, largely stable across the life span, and linked (albeit weakly) to specific genes, hormones, neurotransmitters, and brain activation patterns."

—Richard W. Robins, in Science,
October 7, 2005

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