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A heritability study conducted by Mark Roeling and his colleagues at Oxford and Vrije universities suggests that our DNA might pass down some of our parents' creativity. Identical and fraternal twins were used as participants because identical, or monozygotic, twins share 100% of the same DNA whereas fraternal, or dizygotic, twins share only 50% of their DNA. Using twin studies could also eliminate any high possibility of situational factors because of their shared environment. Differences found between the types of twins could thus be said to be a difference of the DNA they posses.
Researchers wanted to find out how likely it would be for one twin to be in an artistic profession if the other twin was in one. They discovered a .68 correlation for monozygotic twins and only a .4 correlation for dizygotic twins. This implies that about 70% of the reason why some people choose to be in an artistic profession and others don't are attributed to genes!
However, it's important to note that there are two types of creativity based on self-reports and actual performance. One is perceived or desired creativity and the other is actual ability. Similar research done have discovered that perceived creativity has a much higher correlation in identical twins, but the rate drops when it comes to actual creative ability. This suggests that personal characteristics towards a more creative life, such as self-belief and determination, are also influenced by genes. Thus, our genetic code might not directly affect our actual creative performance, but it influences characteristics that makes people strive towards being more artistic!
Source material from Research Digest