All in the family: Is creative writing familial and heritable?

The etiology of creative writing has been overlooked thus far in studies of skill acquisition. Here we attempt to make a start by examining the familiality and heritability of indicators of creative writing in a sample of 511 Russian-speaking children, and their 489 mothers and 326 fathers. The contributions of cognitive ability (fluid and crystallized intelligence) and family environment were also taken into account. Results show modest but statistically significant familiality and heritability of creative writing in this sample, even when other cognitive and environmental factors are added to the model.

► We examine the etiology of creative writing in a Russian sample.
► Measures of cognitive abilities and family environment were also ascertained.
► Modest but statistically significant familiality and heritability of creative writing were found.