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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Melissa BatesonORCiD, Professor Daniel Nettle
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by The Royal Society Publishing, 2018.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
Individual differences in telomere length are associated with individual differences in behaviour in humans and birds. Within the human epidemiological literature this association is assumed to result from specific behaviour patterns causing changes in telomere dynamics. We argue that selective adoption—the hypothesis that individuals with short telomeres are more likely to adopt specific behaviours—is an alternative worthy of consideration. Selective adoption could occur either because telomere length directly affects behaviour, or because behaviour and telomere length are both affected by a third variable, such as exposure to early-life adversity. We present differential predictions of the causation and selective adoption hypotheses and describe how these could be tested with longitudinal data on telomere length. Crucially, if behaviour is causal then it should be associated with differential rates of telomere attrition. Using smoking behaviour as an example, we show that the evidence that smoking accelerates the rate of telomere attrition within individuals is currently weak. We conclude that the selective adoption hypothesis for the association between behaviour and telomere length is both mechanistically plausible and, if anything, more compatible with existing empirical evidence than the hypothesis that behaviour is causal.
Author(s): Bateson M, Nettle D, Wright DJ
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B
Year: 2018
Volume: 373
Print publication date: 15/01/2018
Online publication date: 15/01/2018
Acceptance date: 13/10/2017
Date deposited: 30/01/2018
ISSN (print): 0962-8436
ISSN (electronic): 1471-2970
Publisher: The Royal Society Publishing
URL: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0438
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0438
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