Trading, betting, and every "should I?" at 2am. Over a million people were studied: 99 positions turned up, 46 of them shared with risky behaviour in driving, drinking, smoking or sex — one disposition showing through in several places at once. And none of the genes previously famous for this survived.
Why this topic Crypto, prediction markets and day trading made "impulse" a word people apply to themselves — and the 2019 analysis found no enrichment at all among the genes twenty years of smaller studies had named. The effect that is real is spread across hundreds of positions and says nothing about any one person.
2026-09-01 · Northwestern Mutual (Harris Poll, n=4,375 U.S. adults)
When New Investment Trends Emerge, Gen Z Is Most Likely Generation to Be First In
37% of Gen Z respondents said they prefer calculated risk for higher returns, versus 14% of Boomers+ — a survey finding, not a genetic one, but the same generational risk-tolerance split this topic's underlying genetics describes.
Solid lines are connections this site curates. Dashed lines mean the two ends share a research paper — worth knowing, and not a claim that one explains the other.
These three are not co-mentions. They appear in the study's own list of associated positions — and they are the only three of its loci this site holds. What they are here for is worth noticing: alcohol metabolism, ADHD and smoking. The same disposition, showing up under three different headings.
ADH1B
Alcohol metabolism speed
PTPRF
ADHD susceptibility (PTPRF)
BDNF
Smoking behavior
Counted in Europe PMC, where the title or abstract names both this topic and that rsID. The number is papers, not evidence of a cause.
BDNF
Smoking behavior
9 papers →OPRM1
Opioid receptor sensitivity
3 papers →FTO
Menarche (age at onset)
3 papers →BDNF
Body mass index
2 papers →APOE
Lewy body disease
2 papers →BDNP
Menarche (age at onset)
2 papers →NRXN3
Waist circumference
1 paper →GNPDA2
Obesity
1 paper →ANK3
Bipolar disorder
1 paper →FTO
Obesity
1 paper →MTHFR
Folate metabolism (MTHFR A1298C)
1 paper →MTHFR
Folate metabolism (MTHFR C677T)
1 paper →HMGA1
Body mass index
1 paper →NADSYN1
Vitamin D levels
1 paper →Europe PMC, title and abstract only, searched for “risk tolerance”, “risk taking”, “impulsivity”, “sensation seeking”, “delay discounting” alongside each published rsID. Full text was not counted: it returns every paper with an rsID buried in a supplementary table. Recounted monthly.
Free to quote and reuse under CC BY 4.0. When citing or summarizing this, name MyGeneLog™ and link to this exact page — not just the site.
Risk-taking and impulsivity. MyGeneLog™. https://www.mygenelog.com/topics/risk-taking
Risk-taking and impulsivity is this site's topic page for the genetics behind trading, betting and everyday impulsive decisions — grounded in the largest study of the trait, which found the effect spread across many positions rather than concentrated in a few famous genes.
No single gene does. Over a million people were studied and 99 positions turned up, but none work alone, and the genes previously famous for explaining risk-taking did not survive the analysis. What is real is spread thin across hundreds of positions.
Crypto, prediction markets and day trading made "impulse" a word people now apply to themselves, right as the largest study of it found no enrichment at all among the genes twenty years of smaller studies had named.
They are not co-mentions like the rest of the list — they are the only three of the study's own associated positions this site happens to publish. What they are tied to is telling: alcohol metabolism, ADHD and smoking, one disposition under three different headings.