We also investigated whether inbreeding affects personality by testing for correlation of personality traits with runs of homozygosity, which are homozygous stretches of DNA that indicate distant as well as close inbreeding. We found that inbreeding correlated significantly and positively with Harm Avoidance, and negatively with both Reward Dependence and Novelty Seeking, but did not correlate significantly with Persistence. The absolute values of the correlations were very small, but this was to be expected given the modest effects of inbreeding depression reported in the literature (Roff 1997; Charlesworth and Willis 2009) and the small variation in inbreeding in outbred populations (Keller et al. 2011b). An effect of inbreeding on personality traits is consistent with mutation-selection balance, but is not expected under selective neutrality, balancing selection via environmental heterogeneity, or pleiotropic balancing selection (Charlesworth and Charlesworth 1987; Turelli and Barton 2004; Roff 2005). Consistent with inbreeding pushing traits towards their low fitness ends, high Novelty Seeking, high Reward Dependence, and low Harm Avoidance are all associated with the socially desirable (and supposed high-fitness) end of the so-called `general factor of personality'
