A genetic perspective on the relationship between eudaimonic -and hedonic well-being

Abstract

Whether hedonism or eudaimonia are two distinguishable forms of well-being is a topic of ongoing debate. To shed light on the relation between the two, large-scale available molecular genetic data were leveraged to gain more insight into the genetic architecture of the overlap between hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Hence, we conducted the first genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of eudaimonic well-being (N = ~108 K) and linked it to a GWAS of hedonic well-being (N = ~222 K). We identified the first two genome-wide significant independent loci for eudaimonic well-being and six independent loci for hedonic well-being. Joint analyses revealed a moderate phenotypic correlation (r = 0.53) and a high genetic correlation (r_g = 0.78) between eudaimonic and hedonic well-being. This indicates that the genetic etiology of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being is substantially shared, with divergent (environmental) factors contributing to their phenotypic divergence. Loci regulating expression showed significant enrichment in the brain cortex, brain cerebellum, frontal cortex, as well as the cerebellar hemisphere for eudaimonic well-being. No significant enrichment for hedonic well-being is observed, although brain tissues were top ranked. Genetic correlations patterns with a range of positive and negative related phenotypes were largely similar for hedonic -and eudaimonic well-being. Our results reveal a large overlap between the genes that influence hedonism and the genes that influence eudaimonia.

Figure 1

Manhattan Plot for GWAS results. Result is shown for (a) Univariate GWAS of eudaimonic well-being and, (b) N-weighed GWAMA of hedonic well-being. The x axis shows chromosomal position, and the y axis shows association significance on a −log10 scale. The upper dashed line marks the threshold for genome-wide significance (P = 5 × 10⁻⁸), and the lower dashed line marks the threshold for nominal significance (P = 1 × 10⁻⁵). Each approximately independent genome-wide significant association (lead SNP) is marked by an orange Δ. Each lead SNP is the SNP with the lowest P value within the locus, as defined by our clumping algorithm.

Figure 2

Phenotypic and genetic correlations between eudaimonic and hedonic well-being with their corresponding 95% confidence intervals.

Figure 3

Genetic correlations between eudaimonic (blue) –and hedonic well-being (red) with (from top to bottom): satisfaction with health, financial satisfaction, friendship satisfaction, familial satisfaction, job satisfaction, irritable, loneliness, depression, depression diagnosed by a doctor, neuroticism, alcohol use, coffee use, tea use, salt intake, meat preference, fish preference, fruit preference and sleep duration. 95% confidence intervals are provided.