Altruism & Random Acts of Kindness - 2

More recently, researchers at Bonn University in Germany discovered that altruism is linked to a specific gene. Approximately 100 male and female participants underwent a cheek swab beforehand. The scientists extracted DNA for genetic analyses and focused on one gene, the COMT gene that is linked with an enzyme that inactivates certain messengers in the brain such as dopamine. There are two different variants of the COMT gene: COMT-Val and COMT-Met. Both versions, which occur in the population with approximately equal frequency, differ in only a single building block. Slight alterations in two of its variants—the Val/Val and the Val/Met variants—were associated with altruistic behaviors in both male and female study participants. Altruism can include healthy care-taking, random acts of kindness, and other behaviors that provide evidence of altruism.