This chapter describes how the heritability of a trait can be estimated using data collected
from pairs of twins. The principles of the classical twin design are described, followed by the
assumptions and possible extensions of the design. In the second part of this chapter, two
example scripts are presented and described, explaining the basic steps for estimating
heritability using the statistical program OpenMx. OpenMx and the scripts used for this
chapter can be downloaded so that readers can adapt and use the scripts for their own …

This chapter describes how the heritability of a trait can be estimated using data collected
from pairs of twins. The principles of the classical twin design are described, followed by the
assumptions, and some possible extensions of the design. In the second part of this chapter,
two example scripts are presented and the basic steps for estimating heritability using the
statistical program OpenMx are explained. OpenMx and the scripts used for this chapter can
be downloaded so that readers can adapt and use the scripts for their own purposes.