Had your first coffee of the day yet? Are you a two, three, four or more a day drinker? Do you consume your coffee alone or socially, maybe with co-workers? Were or are your Mum and Dad big coffee drinkers too? It could all be down to your Quantile-Specific Heritability!
With so much concern and media attention around Covid-19 at the moment I was determined only to mention it in passing with this blog and find something pretty obscure to write about.
What makes us consume or enjoy a particular food or drink; is it pre-determined or more influenced by the environment we grow up in? A study of coffee drinkers as part of a wider statistical project running in the USA since 1948 has contributed to work by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory that has recently been released.
It seems that one’s coffee intake is influenced by what is described in the report as the ‘positive feedback loop’ between genetics and the environment, which in layman’s speak I interpret to mean who you are and where you are does make a difference!
Statistician Paul Williams refers to this who and where effect as “quantile-specific heritability” describing how environmental factors will influence the way your genetic predisposition develops; which again I interpret to mean if your genes “like” something and the people around you like that too then you will like it even more!!!
Boring blog I know, but it beats droning on about Covid-19 as there are millions out there voicing an opinion on that.
Written by: Colin from KSV.