Abstract: As an important aspect of individual difference, self-esteem has attracted increasing attentions from behavioral genetic scientists. In this paper, we reviewed twin studies on self-esteem and found that: 1) self-esteem is moderately heritable, though non-shared environmental factors also make a difference; 2) the stability of self-esteem is largely genetically determined; 3) the associations between self-esteem and cognition as well as affect are mainly genetically caused. Together, genetic influences on self-esteem are essential. Future twin study may pay more attention to the heritability of self-esteem fluctuation and implicit self-esteem on one hand, and the specificity of people from extreme sub-groups and those from different cultures on the other hand.

Key words: self-esteem, behavioral genetics, twin study, global self-esteem, domain-specific self-esteem