What is considered low, moderate, and high heritability?

What is considered low, moderate, and high heritability?

• A. Low <0.3; Moderate 0.3-0.6; High >0.7
• B. Low <0.1; Moderate 0.2 to 0.4; High >0.5
• C. Low <0.05; Moderate 0.1-0.3; High >0.6
• D. Low <0.2; Moderate 0.1-0.3; High >0.4

Answer: (B)

Heritability expresses how much of the variation we see in a trait within a population is due to genetic differences rather than the environment, and it ranges from 0 to 1. In practice, people describe, in broad terms, how strong that genetic influence is using rough cutoffs: very small genetic contribution is considered low (about 0.1 or less), a moderate contribution is around 0.2 to 0.4, and a strong genetic influence is about 0.5 or higher. The given set of ranges matches this common interpretation: low less than 0.1, moderate from 0.2 to 0.4, and high greater than 0.5. This aligns with the intuitive idea that a trait with h2 near 0.05 is barely genetic, near 0.3 has substantial but not exclusive genetic influence, and above 0.6 is largely determined by genetics. Other formats typically shift the cutoffs in ways that would misclassify many traits' levels of genetic influence.

Heritability expresses how much of the variation we see in a trait within a population is due to genetic differences rather than the environment, and it ranges from 0 to 1. In practice, people describe, in broad terms, how strong that genetic influence is using rough cutoffs: very small genetic contribution is considered low (about 0.1 or less), a moderate contribution is around 0.2 to 0.4, and a strong genetic influence is about 0.5 or higher. The given set of ranges matches this common interpretation: low less than 0.1, moderate from 0.2 to 0.4, and high greater than 0.5. This aligns with the intuitive idea that a trait with h2 near 0.05 is barely genetic, near 0.3 has substantial but not exclusive genetic influence, and above 0.6 is largely determined by genetics. Other formats typically shift the cutoffs in ways that would misclassify many traits' levels of genetic influence.