Happy People Could Very Well Make Happy Kids

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"We found that around half the differences in happiness were genetic," said Tim Bates, a researcher at the University of Edinburgh who led the study. "It is really quite surprising."

The findings show that those who are sociable, active, stable, hardworking and conscientious tend to be happier people reported in the journal Psychological Science.

Fraternal twins do not share the same genes while identical twins do. The study's subjects ranged in age from 25 to 75. The study used a survey of questions that dealt with personality. Because of the shared genes researchers could identify common genes that result in certain personality traits.

"What this study showed was that the identical twins in a family were very similar in personality and in well-being, and by contrast, the fraternal twins were only around half as similar," Bates said. "That strongly implicates genes."

Perhaps your parents couldn't give you a huge inheritance but if they were happy people they just may have passed on a trait more important than money. Happiness.