'I will do it tomorrow' attitude hidden in genes

Is "I will do it tomorrow" is all you hear every time you ask your kid to do homework? The secret of such a trait may well be trapped in his/her genes, a study reveals.

Those who procrastinate are also likely to be more impulsive and both the traits are linked to genes that one inherits, the study has found.

"Everyone procrastinates at least sometimes but we wanted to explore why some people procrastinate more than others and why procrastinators seem more likely to make rash actions and act without thinking," said psychological scientist Daniel Gustavson of the University of Colorado Boulder in the US.

The researchers found that procrastination is indeed heritable, just like impulsivity.

Not only that, there seems to be a complete genetic overlap between procrastination and impulsivity - that is, there are no genetic influences that are unique to either trait alone, the study found.

For the study, researchers had 181 identical-twin pairs and 166 fraternal-twin pairs complete several surveys intended to probe their tendencies toward impulsivity and procrastination, as well as their ability to set and maintain goals.

The research appeared in the journal Psychological Science.