The #ESSGN2026 conference is starting today! So many emotions mixing together for this conference that is very close to my heart. Happy and anxious that it's back in Bologna!

It is time: the 5:th annual conference of the ESSGN! Back in beautiful Bologna, Italy. Follow along!

Comment from several ESSGN doctoral candidates now out in @nathumbehav.nature.com. What should be best practices in social science and behavioral genetics?

Big news! @dr-appie.bsky.social returns to Born and Raised this week, and besides talking about how social inequality and genetic structure affect each other, he also has a cool surprise for us! Can you guess what it is?

There was a lot of laughter during this conversation and a few secret confessions... But we also had some great discussions about musicality, genetics, Beethoven and public outreach, mental health, and music genres... Thank you @rafaelahlskog.bsky.social and @aysuo.bsky.social for having me! 🎶

omg it's laura wesseldijk, I love laura wesseldijk!

What's the deal with musicality and genetics? This week, Born and Raised went to talk to Laura Wesseldijk. There's something here for both metalheads, horse riding enthusiasts and trombonists!

I committed a podcast!

Are you mostly noise? This week Born and Raised went to talk to @eivindy.bsky.social about the genetics of personality, the "gloomy prospect", and about Eivind's possible weird mutation!

My first podcast! Thank you very much @rafaelahlskog.bsky.social and @aysuo.bsky.social for having me on!

This week, Born and Raised went to talk to @perlinedemange.bsky.social about cognitive and non-cognitive skills, and their shared genetics with education and psychopathology. Also: christmas elves! Don't miss.

...and the Oslo one!

Always energising to engage with cutting-edge work on assortative mating, cross-ancestry prediction, and rare variants at @ESSGN — especially with such a strong cohort of doctoral researchers at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. #Sociogenomics #GeneticPrediction #ESSGN

...and here is the postdoc in Uppsala!

Triple sociogenomics postdoc opportunities coming up! Here's the Amsterdam one.

I was on a podcast! I had great fun talking about my favorite social science genetics topic (partner similarity!) with @aysuo.bsky.social and @rafaelahlskog.bsky.social. If you want to learn more about assortative mating and why it is so interesting, give it a listen 🎧!

What's up with partner choice and genetics? In this episode of Born and Raised, @hfsunde.bsky.social talks all things assortative mating!

Interested in using polygenic scores (PGS) in social science or health research? We are running a 2-day intensive short course @stats_UCL with @timtmorris.bsky.social (20–21 April 2026): tinyurl.com/5n6hwyxy. Ideal for all quantitative researcher across Social and Health Sciences! Get started!

Political Science and Genetics, odd bed fellows? Not necessarily! Listen in on this weeks episode of Born and Raised, with Sven Oskarsson, professor of political science at Uppsala university.

What can sugar rationing during and after WW2 teach us about human health? Surprising findings from Stephanie von Hinke and others!

I never studied molecular biology, but have found epigenetics to be an exciting substrate to probe evo-devo theories (lifespan plasticity, developmental origins of health and disease, life history, gene X social inequality). Cheers to reuniting the divorcées "social science" and "life science" 💗

In this week's episode of Born and Raised, we met Laurel Raffington at MPIB to talk all things epigenetics, the history and ethics of doing sociogenomic research in Germany, and the importance of lifting weights. Don't miss!

ESSGN doctoral candidate Asya Bülbül reflects on what political scientists can learn from integrating genetics.

New episode of Born and Raised out now, with @sjoerdalten.bsky.social, covering where economics and modern genetic methods meet. Don't miss!

Article alert!🚨 1/11 Parents matter - and we can quantify part of that influence genetically. Our new JCPP paper on multivariate indirect maternal genetic effects across internalizing and externalizing symptoms. doi.org/10.1111/jcpp... #jcpp @uio.no @unioslo-svfak.bsky.social @unioslo-uv.bsky.social

Ahoy! Call for papers now open for this year's amazing ESSGN conference - returning to the beautiful Bologna. Have anything to present at the intersection of the social sciences and genetics? Don't miss!

ESSGN doctoral candidate Nadia Harerimana writes a personal reflection on critique as care in social science genetics. essgn.org/2026/01/30/c...

Join us in Turku, Finland for the 3rd @invest-flagship.bsky.social conference; May 6-8, 2026. This year's topic is "Building equal societies: from scientific findings to societal transformation" with excizing and timely keynotes by Prof. Harden @kph3k.bsky.social and Prof. Cohen @philipncohen.com

Behind the scenes

Exciting news! Today marks the start of the podcast Born and Raised - produced by the ESSGN. In this very first episode, our hosts have visited @dr-appie.bsky.social in his office at the AUMC. Shocking revelations ensue! Find it on essgn.podbean.com or on the podcast platform of your choice.

The ESSGN wishes a very happy new year to all of you!

Welcome to my 2025 scientific publications wrapped! It's been a good year for behavioral genetics, with exciting studies on the relationship between our DNA and socio-economic outcomes, sexual behavior, personality, intelligence, and psychiatric disorders 🧬 See thread below 👇🏽

1/11 New @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social led by @ESSGNetwork PhD student @qiyuanpeng.bsky.social : Parental influence on children’s educational achievement using Trio-GCTA. doi.org/10.64898/202...

Co-organized with @lseinequalities.bsky.social , @cy-univ.bsky.social Supported by : @lisdata.bsky.social, ifo Institute, @uantwerpen.be AIPRIL, @umontpellier.bsky.social CEE-M, ECINEQ, Uni Bari, Uni Roma Sapienza, @essgn.bsky.social , World Bank Group

Two birds of a gene - catch Matt Keller's webinar at @uio.no on October 15th. Please share www.sv.uio.no/promenta/eng... @ispg.bsky.social @behaviorgenetic.bsky.social @unioslo-svfak.bsky.social @essgn.bsky.social @ibg.colorado.edu

Loved hosting @essgn.bsky.social in Oxford including @dr-appie.bsky.social & family (& the rest of the ESSGN family as well) - read the post and links below to hear about this great event

We welcomed the next generation of @essgn.bsky.social social science genomics researchers in Oxford! ✨ Speakers from industry (deCODE, Genomics), data (UKBiobank), experts from Oxford & beyond + an Editor from Nature Human Behaviour! 📸 More here 👉 www.demography.ox.ac.uk/news/lcds-ho...

Some people call it a minefield. Others call it dangerous, even irresponsible. I call it the most promising field in life sciences. My love letter to social science genetics: communities.springernature.com/posts/a-love...

Call for abstracts: genetics, economic & social issues. We're hosting a 1-day workshop on using genetic data to examine economic & social issues on 12th December at UCL’s Social Research Institute. More info & submission at link below #genetics #socialscience #economics #cohort bit.ly/41EnPmu

1/🧵 Even more nature-nurture for school performance in @pnas.org! Nikolai Eftedal examined family resemblance in school performance in nearly 1 million students across their Norwegian relatives. doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

🧵 THREAD: New wine on socioeconomic status! Joakim Coleman Ebeltoft shipped a new tap in @NatureComms - a large study on the genetic and environmental factors behind socioeconomic status in Norway 🇳🇴 1/11 doi.org/10.1038/s414...

So happy that this conference has gotten to the 4th iteration. Loved to be there and see the faces and ideas of a growing community of responsible social science genetic researchers Love.

Thank you @essgn.bsky.social and everyone at ESSGN this year for a brilliant conference! I was grateful to be there and learnt so much.

Very grateful that I got to present at the ESSGN past Friday. In the study I presented, we looked at intergenerational transmission of education in a sample of the Norwegian population register. We used a Children-of-Twins model to look at GPA at age 16 and educational attainment in the parents.

Ending the conference with a panel about Mendelian Randomization with @mendelrandom.bsky.social Alice Carter and Dalton Conley. My main take-away: use negative controls! @essgn.bsky.social

Independent contributions to externalizing and internalizing symptoms from common and rare variants shown by @olivia-wootton.bsky.social in MCS and Alspac. Also always nice to see that the NonCog PGI association is not mediated by cognitive skills 🤞 @essgn.bsky.social

Very thorough investigation of the impact of low dose ionization due to nuclear incident in the UK. By Rossella da Sabbato @essgn.bsky.social I’m learning a lot here!

“Social science genetics will continue as a field but your publications will stay” @libertyruth.bsky.social told us her wishes and advice as an NHB editor. -> Talk about your limitations, use correlation terminology when not testing causation, document your ethical considerations, write FAQs

Using having two first children of same sex as an IV, Dalton Conley disproves the Trivers-Willard hypothesis: it appears having a girl is taking a bigger toll on parents’ epigenetic clocks. @essgn.bsky.social

@michelnivard.bsky.social gave a very enthusiastic big 5 GWAS overview. I hope we'll see a lot more personality research at @essgn.bsky.social next year!