personality

An enormous study links intelligence and personality in surprising ways

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Are fools happy and geniuses disorganized — or is that a mistaken stereotype?

Thousands of studies examine human personality and intelligence — core aspects of individuality — including how to measure them and how they impact life outcomes. But we know surprisingly little about how personality and intelligence relate to each another.

“Each study pressed a pinprick in the veil, offering an insight into what makes people unique,” Kevin Stanek, a human capital researcher at Gilead Sciences, explained to Big Think. “But we wanted the panoramic view. We wanted to know how it all fits together to make each person an individual.”

So Stanek, Deniz Ones, and dozens of research assistants set out on a massive quest to collect data from every study they could find, including research that was never published, research by the military and private businesses, and research that had sat dormant on hard drives for decades. “We couldn’t have done it without thousands of hours of help from other researchers and volunteers,” reflects Stanek.

Fourteen years later, the massive data catalog has dropped. It contains 79 personality traits and 97 cognitive abilities from 1,300 studies from over 50 countries including over 2 million participants. And an early meta-analysis published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that personality and intelligence relate in some surprising ways.

What do we mean by personality and intelligence?

Personality and intelligence are largely genetic, stable traits that substantially influence the course of one’s life, from educational attainment and job performance to divorce rate and life expectancy. But what are they, exactly?

Personality describes how someone generally thinks, feels, and behaves. It is made up of five major independent traits, also known as the “Big 5”: neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, openness, and agreeableness. Stanek and Ones’ dataset also incorporates several aspects and facets that make up each of the Big 5 traits, like depression and suspiciousness for neuroticism, and politeness and empathy for agreeableness.

Intelligence (termed cognitive ability by the researchers) describes how well someone can understand and apply information. Intelligence can be split into two kinds. Acquired knowledge, also called invested abilities, refers to specific skills and knowledge. Non-invested knowledge refers to all other cognitive abilities. Like personality, these two types of intelligence can be broken into facets like working memory, pattern recognition, and verbal ability.

“The links between these nuanced traits are what make us individuals,” explains Stanek. “They’re the richness of the picture beyond just personality types and IQ scores.”

How personality is related to intelligence

The disorganized and absentminded professor, the moody genius, the bubbly airhead — many stereotypes link certain personality traits to intelligence. Is any of this based in reality? Stanek and Ones’ initial meta-analysis of the compilation found hundreds of reliable relationships between personality and intelligence. (An interactive visualization is available here on Stanek’s website.) Here’s a sampling:

  • Openness, which refers to the willingness to engage with new ideas and experiences, is the only personality trait with an established history linking it to intelligence. As expected, openness was moderately strongly correlated with general mental ability. 
  • Conscientiousness, a measure of self-regulation and orderliness, correlated positively with intelligence overall. But some facets, including cautiousness and routine seeking, predicted lower cognitive abilities. 
  • Extraversion, a measure of sociality and enthusiasm, was only negligibly related to intelligence overall. However, the activity facet more strongly correlated, and (surprisingly) sociability had a small negative relationship with some cognitive abilities. 
  • Neuroticism encompasses negative emotionality, which can inhibit advanced thinking. Despite the trope of the moody genius, perhaps it’s no surprise that higher levels of neuroticism predicted lower levels of intelligence, albeit weakly. The uneven temper and depression facets were particularly strong predictors of decreased intelligence. 
  • Agreeableness, which relates to getting along with others, overall had the weakest correlation with intelligence. However, the compassion and interpersonal sensitivity facets were moderately strong predictors of general mental ability, and the politeness facet was negatively associated with some cognitive abilities.

In short, the data showed at least two things. First, most of the significant correlations occur at the facet level rather than the Big 5 level. Ignoring these more specific traits conceals important relationships between personality and cognitive ability. “It’s convenient to categorize people into basic types,” Ones says. ”But only by incorporating the many nuances of personality do we see the constellation of traits that matter and make someone unique.”

Second, many of our stereotypes are wrong. Happy, engaged, compassionate people are more likely to be intelligent than their moody, insensitive counterparts.

What to expect when you’re extraverted

Ones cautions against any causal claims. These are after all just correlations, and it will take time for researchers to fully assess how clusters of personality traits and abilities move together. But one intriguing possibility is that certain personalities are more likely to engage in cognitively enriching activities. This would explain why openness (that is, interest in engaging with new ideas and experiences) and activeness (a facet of extraversion) were positively related to intelligence.

It’s also possible that intelligence makes life easier, thus reducing negative emotionality and freeing one up to be less cautious and more compassionate. Or some third factor could be at play, like wealth or health boosting cognitive abilities and facilitating certain personality types. (Stanek and Ones are releasing a book this fall that will detail their thoughts on how it all fits together.)

“One takeaway is simply these neat connections — empathetic people, happy people, open people tend to be more intelligent,” says Ones. “But it’s bigger than that.” Stanek and Ones set their sights on using this information to better understand why personality and cognitive abilities go together, and ultimately how this information can optimize people’s success. 

“Right now, companies use information to understand and influence you,” Ones explains. “We want people to better understand themselves so they can identify their optimal job, friends, city, romantic partner, or anything else important to them.”

Addictive Behavior Linked to Personality and Psychopathology

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Substance use disorder (SUD) includes dependence syndromes and harmful use of illicit drugs and alcohol. SUD is often complicated by a repetitive pattern of abstinence-reinstatement and psychiatric comorbidities.

The personality traits of people with SUD may also be factors contributing to continuous use of substances.

It is plausible that SUD reflects a complex interplay between substance use, dependence features, clinical symptoms and personality traits.

The relationship between substance use and clinical symptoms can be directional in nature. For instance, drug-induced or withdrawal-induced clinical symptoms are well recognized. On the other hand, some theorists suggest that clinical patients may use substances as a form of “self-medication.”

Such a complex relationship between SUD features and symptoms and personality is best examined using network analysis. However, relatively little research has examined this relationship.

To address this issue, Dr. Raymond Chan from the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with Dr. Simon Lui at the University of Hong Kong, and Drs. J Poon and Lam Ming at the Castle Peak Hospital, recruited 391 treatment-seeking SUD patients and measured substance use, dependence features, clinical symptoms and personality traits using well-validated scales.

Network analysis was applied to construct a regularized partial correlation network and to estimate centrality indices such as strength, closeness, betweenness and expected influence. Furthermore, the relative importance of each node was estimated, with substance use and severity of dependence features as the dependent variables.

This shows a woman looking out a window
It is plausible that SUD reflects a complex interplay between substance use, dependence features, clinical symptoms and personality traits.

The results showed a highly interconnected, regularized partial-correlation network. The predictability index suggested that the regularized partial-correlation network was “self-sustaining.”

Moreover, neuroticism, a personality trait, showed highest closeness index. Depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms and “general” symptoms in the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale showed the highest expected influence.

Regarding the relative importance analysis results, the depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms and ‘general’ symptoms significantly determined the variance of drug use and dependence severity.

Taken together, depressive and anxiety symptoms appear to be possible intervention targets to break the self-sustaining system of SUD.

Dr. Chan and his collaborators are planning to conduct follow-up assessments on this cohort and investigate the temporal stability of the regularized partial-correlation network, and to include more refined measures on reward learning to see if cognitive dysfunctions as such could also be useful intervention targets.

Substance use disorder (SUD) is characterized by alcohol and drug use, dependence features and adverse psychosocial consequences. SUD represents an interplay between substance use, personality, impulsivity and psychopathology.

Network analysis is a powerful method to examine the direct and indirect relationship between various variables, and could understand SUD as a self-sustaining system.

We examined the network structure of addictive behaviour, personality, impulsivity and psychopathology in treatment-seeking people with SUD. This cross-sectional network analysis utilized a convenience sample of 391 treatment-seeking patients with SUD in a specialized addiction psychiatric clinic.

We measured drug and alcohol use, dependence features and psychopathology using clinician-rated scales.

Personality and impulsivity were measured using self-report instruments. LASSO network, centrality indices and network stability were estimated. We also estimated the relative importance of the network nodes in determining levels of drug and alcohol use and dependence severity.

The domain-level LASSO network of additive behaviour, psychopathological variables, traits of the Big Five Inventory (BFI) and impulsivity formed a highly connected network. BFI-neuroticism lied at the centre of the network with the highest closeness index.

Depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms and ‘general’ symptoms in the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale showed highest expected influence and predictability. The mean predictability of the network suggested a self-sustaining system. The three psychopathological nodes significantly determined the variance of drug use and dependence severity.

The network structure of SUD is influenced by anxiety and depressive symptoms. Clinicians should detect and intervene these symptoms to break the self-sustaining system of SUD.

Does a Sibling’s Gender Influence Our Own Personality?

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Summary: New findings put theories about personality associated with a sibling’s gender under the microscope, reporting a sibling’s gender may not be as influential on the development of personality traits as previously believed.

Source: The Conversation

Our siblings play a central role in our childhoods, so it stands to reason they influence our personality in the long term. In particular, researchers have long been interested in how growing up with a sister compared to a brother might influence who we become as adults.

How do children interact with their sister or brother? How do parents behave differently towards their children of different genders, and how does that interaction influence the children?

Past theories have made quite different predictions: siblings of the opposite gender may plausibly result in either gender-stereotypical personalities (a girl may take on a more feminine role to differentiate herself from her brother) or less gender stereotypical personalities (a girl may take on more masculine traits because she imitates her brother).

In fact, psychological research has been exploring these differences for over half a century. In some studies, siblings of the opposite sex seemed to be more gender-conforming. Girls with brothers later become more “typically female” and boys with sisters more “typically male”.

Other studies find the exact opposite, however. Opposite gender siblings developed in typically gender-conforming ways. To resolve these contradictions, we wanted to test the effect of sibling gender on personality in a rigorous and comprehensive way.

Using big data

In our new study we focused on the relationships between children and their next older or younger sibling. We compiled a unique data set by combining 12 large representative surveys covering nine countries across four continents (US, UK, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, Mexico, China and Indonesia).

This resulted in a data set of more than 85,000 people – many times the sample sizes used in previous studies.

We also investigated many more personality traits than previous studies have. This included the traits that have been most widely studied in other research, and which have been shown to be important predictors of people’s decisions and choices.

The “big five” of these traits are: openness to experiences, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. The other traits examined were: risk tolerance, trust, patience and “locus of control” (the degree to which people believe they have control over their lives).

We also created an index describing to what extent people have a typically female personality. This allowed us to test comprehensively whether growing up with an opposite gender sibling leads to a more or less gender-stereotypical personality.

Sibling gender and life experience

This study is not only innovative in its use of a large data set, but it also applies a consistent method to identify any causal effects of a sibling’s gender on personality traits.

This shows a young brother and sister sharing a flower
Like brother, like sister? Researchers have differed on the likely influence of an opposite gender sibling on personality.

To estimate credible causal effects, we make use of an interesting fact of nature: once parents decide to have another child it is essentially random whether they have a girl or boy. In this “natural experiment” some people are therefore “randomly assigned” a younger sister or brother.

This allows us to estimate the causal effect of sibling gender on personality by comparing the average personality of people who grew up with a sister as their next youngest sibling with those who grew up with a next younger brother.

Brothers and sisters

Our results suggest sibling gender has no effect on personality. For all nine personality traits and the summary index, we find people who have a next younger sister display, on average, the same personality traits as people who have a next younger brother.

We also see no difference in personality between people who have a next older sister and people who have a next older brother. Because we have data on more than 85,000 people, these results are estimated with great precision.

The results help refute the idea that brothers or sisters cause each other to develop “feminine” or “masculine” personality traits over the long term.

However, the results don’t mean sibling gender has no long-term effect at all. Other studies that applied a similar methodological approach have shown that women with brothers in the US and Denmark earn less. And a study of Asian populations has found women with younger sisters marry earlier and women with older sisters marry later.

So, there seem to be interesting sibling dynamics related to gender – but personality is probably not part of the explanation for those effects.

Abstract

No Evidence That Siblings’ Gender Affects Personality Across Nine Countries

Does growing up with a sister rather than a brother affect personality?

In this article, we provide a comprehensive analysis of the effects of siblings’ gender on adults’ personality, using data from 85,887 people from 12 large representative surveys covering nine countries (United States, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, Mexico, China, and Indonesia).

We investigated the personality traits of risk tolerance, trust, patience, locus of control, and the Big Five. We found no meaningful causal effects of the gender of the next younger sibling and no associations with the gender of the next older sibling.

Given the high statistical power and consistent results in the overall sample and relevant subsamples, our results suggest that siblings’ gender does not systematically affect personality.

Here are 6 signs your personality is so strong it’s intimidating others

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You know the saying, “don’t judge a book by the cover”, but when it comes to sizing people up, first impressions can be hard to overcome.

For people with strong personality types, like those who have been branded “alphas”, it can be difficult for people to get close to them. Not because they are hard to get close to, but because of the way they come off when you first meet them.

Often thought to be overbearing and aggressive, alpha personalities have a lot more going on beneath the surface that we realize.

What’s more, many alphas don’t realize their personalities are actually making others feel uncomfortable or intimidated.

Here are 6 signs that your alpha personality is intimidating others.

1) You Always Say What’s on Your Mind

While people say they want to hear the truth, it can be hard to hear when someone is actually giving it to you. Alphas are known for their “straight to the point” personality, and sometimes their bark is worse than their bite.

strong personality is intimidating quote

2) You Are Wise Beyond Your Years

While alpha personality types are often very outgoing and extroverted, they also do a great deal of introspective reflecting and know themselves well.

This can make others uncomfortable when they realize you know your stuff, and can figure things out faster, better, and in a more efficient way than other personality types.

alpha personality is intimidating quote

3) You See Solutions Where Others See Only Problems

While everyone else is running around like chickens with their heads cut off worrying about the world’s end, you are over there getting things done.

You can see a problem from a 30,000 foot level and know the path to success within minutes.

4) Your Tolerance for Ignorance is Non-existent

Because you say what you think and mean what you say, you expect people to do the same. This means that people who are ignorant don’t stand a chance with you. Even if they are being ignorant without purpose.

You’ll call them on their crap and expect them to change their ways if they want to enjoy the pleasure of your company.

5) You Love New Things

Alpha personality types have a strong desire to try new things. Their confidence enables them to try and fail repeatedly without being knocked down. This is why they love first dates.

This also means that they are more likely to be single, adventure alone, travel the world by themselves, and enjoy taking risks. This can be a lot for people to process and can result in people keeping their distance from alphas.

6) You Cut to the Chase

Strong personalities exert a lot of energy on moving their lives forward, which means that they don’t have time for small talk. They know what is important to them and they don’t waste time doing things that aren’t on that list. So if you find yourself face to face with an alpha personality, don’t take offense to their standoffish ways. That’s just who they are.

This Is What the Shape of Your Breasts Reveals About Your Personality

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Most people don’t know this but the shape of your breasts does define your primary personality type. It also helps in knowing the kind of person you are. Shocking, right? Yes.

As weird as it sounds, there is an association between physical features of a breast and personality types. To find out about yours, continue reading:

1. Lemon Shaped (symmetric and petite)

1

You stand apart from the crowd and you tend to disobey the societal norms and believe in leading your life solely on your terms. You at times also prefer partial isolation.

2. Apple Shaped (small, facing away and sloping downward)

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There is a wild adventurer in you. You have an irresistible charm. Your humour is also what attracts people. You look at things from a progressive point of view.

3. Cherry Shaped (perky and spread apart)

3

You are a very confident decision maker. People adore you for having a strong personality. You are bold in nature and are very upfront about what you want.

4. Nectarine Shaped (small and pendant, with large nipples)

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You are the type of person who is a giver by nature. You are a peace lover and you absolutely hate drama. Words like dignity and wisdom are what define you the best.

5. Papaya shaped (elongated and pendulous)

5

You are the boss type of woman and you are driven by life goals and work really hard to achieve it. You are very ambitious and you have the qualities of a perfect leader.

6. Pear Shaped (large nipples, triangular and facing downward)

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You have a very strong personality with a strong sense of optimism. But that one quality which makes you different from the others is that you are completely aware of your self-worth.

7. Melon Shaped (globular and forward facing)

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A diplomat by nature. You are the kind of person people run to for help and you always provide people with the best of solutions and even a shoulder to cry on. You are filled with empathy.

8. Grapefruit Shaped (immensely bulbous and facing away)

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You are the idol of confidence and self esteem. People look up to you for this and this is what pleases them the most about you

9. Orange Shaped (medium, round and facing away)

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You have a very sharp eye and your judgment skills are on point. You can judge people and their mentality quicker than everyone else.

10. Pineapple-Shaped (large, with prominent nipples)

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You are the sunshine everyone craves for when they are surrounded with dark clouds. Your best quality is the positivity you bring to the table.

11. Plum Shaped (small, with downward nipples)

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You never settle down and are very enthusiastic by nature. You love exploring people and places.

12. Mango Shaped (medium in size and facing away)

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You are never an open book. There is always something or the other hidden about you. You have set high standards for people in your life and you don’t let just anyone become a part of your life.

The Way You Sit Reveals A Lot About Your Personality.

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Experts in the field of body language can easily assess a person by the way we sit because it is an action completely dictated by the subconsciousness. Just the way their legs are positioned is enough to help them gauge others.

Position A

When people sit like this, they are telling themselves that if they stick their head in the sand, their problems will disappear. While this can help at times, most of the time their issues won’t just resolve themselves.

Position B

A person sitting like this is dreamy and imaginative. They are the backbone of any social group and are always fun to be around because they are full of fresh and exciting innovations, They love traveling and befriending new people, They are always ready to leap into something new.

Position C

They like a certain level of comfort and style and they work hard to stay that way. This makes it really difficult to shop for them because they are very picky about clothes. They might look disorganized but there is a sense of their surroundings and they have no trouble finding things. But they have trouble staying focused on anything for more than a short time.

Position D

Punctuality is very important to these people and they expect the same from others. They possess great intellect but they are scared of confrontation and will do whatever it takes to maintain stability. They are also uneasy about public displays of affection or anger. Neatness comes naturally to them and they make their home their shelter from the cruel outside world.

Position E

These are the people who will never leap before they look. They weigh all the odds and are alright with waiting for things to happen. But they’re ambitious and fixated on the goals they set for themselves.  They place a lot of emphasis on looks are try to keep up a certain standard.

crossing legs

 

Where Does Personality Reside In The Brain? The Frontoparietal Network Makes You Who You Are

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Never underestimate personality. A sense of humor will make you popular; a little confidence will win you jobs; and the right amount of sass or cockiness will score you dates. Personality shines from within, mingling spirit and intelligence, so it’s safe to assume it originates in the brain.

brain

While they would have to agree, neuroscientists naturally add a few lines, a little shading, and some general complexity to this picture of personality’s genesis. Take, for instance, the Yale researchers who recently created a brain activity matrix for 126 people based on MRI data. To do this, they looked at 268 distinct brain regions and measured how strongly the activity of each region compared to the activity in every other region. Creating a matrix for each person, they soon discovered everyone had his or her own unique matrix, quite like we all have a unique fingerprint.

Next, to test their discovery, the team worked backwards: they searched through MRI scans from previous sessions to see if they could identify each person based on the matrix created. In fact, the researchers could pinpoint each participant with surprising accuracy.

Even though the stream of consciousness flowing through our brains is always moving, then, people always looked most similar to themselves, explained Emily Finn, the lead author of the study.

However, the type of scans had bearing on their accuracy. The scans taken while participants performed simple motor tasks made their identity search more difficult, causing their accuracy rates to plummet below 70 percent. Yet, their accuracy rate shot up to 99 percent when they looked at scans taken while participants were simply resting, essentially doing nothing other than daydreaming.

Dr. Todd Constable, senior author of the study, explained that when two people were confused among the pile of scans, it wasn’t when they were trying to find a twin. Each of the twins who participated in the study had a unique matrix.

Examining the data, the researchers found the most distinctive area of the brain for each participant was the frontoparietal network, essentially the high traffic communication lines between the parietal and frontal lobes of the brain. (Your brain is divided into four lobes: frontal, parietal, occipital, and temporal.) “Evolutionarily that’s the last thing that developed and made humans unique from other animals,” Constable told Medical Daily.

It is also the area of the brain that defines your personality.

“Your personality is really unique so maybe that’s reflected in these functional connections in those areas on [the frontal lobes],” said Constable. “We thought that made sense.”

Another study based on the Big Five personality traits supports this idea, though from another perspective.

Personality Continuum

As personality psychologists see it, the Big Five traits are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (OCEAN).  According to the Big Five theory, each of us as lands somewhere along the continuum stretching between five sets of opposing qualities: extraversion and introversion; emotional stability and neuroticism; conscientiousness and impulsivity; agreeableness and hostility; and openmindedness and closemindedness. Naturally, each of these traits contains sub-characteristics.

Openness, for example, includes adventurousness, imagination, curiosity, and emotionality, while extroversion comprises personal energy and the tendency to seek stimulation. Conscientiousness merges with self-discipline, dutifulness, and an orientation toward achievement, while agreeableness involves compassion. Finally, neuroticism contains the seeds of anxiety, anger, and depression.

So, to understand how brain region size might relate to personality, psychologists at the University of Minnesota worked with 116 participants. After answering a personality questionnaire, the participants underwent a brain imaging test. Turns out, their findings provide support for a theory that neurobiological systems underlie the Big Five.

They discovered all the extroverted participants had significantly larger medial orbitofrontal cortex, located on the frontal lobe above and behind the eyes. The conscientious ones had a bigger lateral prefrontal cortex; this part of our brain gets involved when we set a goal for ourselves or obey rules. The brains of the neurotics in the group showed smaller volumes in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex among other characteristics. Overall, the brain regions impacted are those responsible for negative emotions in the neurotics.

In fact, the regions affected in people scoring high on the neurotic scale “may reflect higher sensitivity both to the possibility of error and to pain following punishment,” wrote the authors. By comparison, those scoring high in agreeableness had larger brain regions that enable empathy and understanding of others’ emotions and thoughts. Unusually, the researchers did not find any brain regions specifically corresponding to openness.

Though both studies are too small to be conclusive, the results of each are still intriguing. Our personalities may be reflected in both the relative size of our brain regions and the connections they most often make.

Scientists Discover That Eyes Are Windows To The Soul .

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The eye is the window to the universe, and some would say they are also windows to the soul..  We have heard this phrase get passed around before: “The eyes are the windows of the soul”.  People usually say this when they can see pain, anger, or some other emotion in somebody else’s eyes.  But recent research gives a whole new meaning to this phrase.  Eyes not only windows to emotions, they are windows to the soul.

How?  The answer has to do with the actual eyeball itself.  Everyone has a different structure of lines, dots and colours within the iris of their eye.  Some people may have similar eye colour to each other, but the lines and dots on the iris are as unique as a fingerprint.

Although they vary from person to person, there are certain patterns contained within the iris which are widespread, and scientists at Orebro University in Sweden wanted to see if these patterns correlated with specific personality traits.

They focused on patterns in crypts (threads which radiate from the pupil) and contraction furrows (lines curving around the outer edge) which are formed when the pupils dilate.  The studied the eyes of 428 subjects to see if the crypts patters and contraction furrows reflected their character traits.

What they found

Their findings showed those with denselypacked crypts are more warmhearted, tender, trusting, and likely to sympathise with others.  In comparison, those with more contraction furrows were more neurotic, impulsive and likely to give way to cravings.

It’s crazy to think how the markings on a person’s eyeball can reveal the most deep-rooted character traits of an individual.

There was an extremely strong correlation between a person’s iris and their personality traits.  But correlation does not imply causation right? Right. But it appears as though both eye detail and a person’s character traits may be caused by the same thing.

The researchers said that eye structure and personality could be linked because the gene sequences responsible for developing the structure of the iris also contribute to the development of the frontal lobe of our brain, which is the motherboard of our personality.

 “‘Our results suggest people with different iris features tend to develop along different personality lines,’ said Matt Larsson, a behavioural scientist who led the study at Orebro University.  ‘These findings support the notion that people with different iris configurations tend to develop along different trajectories in regards to personality.  Differences in the iris can be used as a biomarker that reflects differences between people.’”

 

The scientists also mentioned something very interesting about a gene called PAX6, which controls the formation of the eye in the early stages of embryonic development.  Research has shown that mutation of the gene results in poor social skills, impulsiveness, and poor communication skills.

Eye colour reveals even more

According to researchers at Pittsburgh University, women with lighter colored eyes experience less pain during childbirth compared to women with darker eyes. People with lighter eyes also consume significantly more alcohol, as darker eyed people require less alcohol to become intoxicated.

The reason boils down to genes. A senior lecturer in biomolecular sciences at Liverpool John Moores University said, “What we know now is that eye color is based on 12 to 13 individual variations in people’s genes… These genes do other things in the body.”

Take melanin,the pigment that makes eyes darker.   Melanin may also makes people more susceptible to alcohol. When psychologists at Georgia State University in Atlanta surveyed more than 12,000 men and women, they found those with light eyes consumed significantly more alcohol than those with dark eyes. The reason brown-eyed people may drink less – and also be less likely to be alcoholics – is because they need less alcohol to become intoxicated.

Melanin not only determines eye darkness, it’s also an insulator for the electrical connections between brain cells. The more melanin in the brain, the more efficiently, sensitively and faster the brain can work, the researchers reported in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.  So the chemical responsible for eye darkness is also responsible for brain efficiency.

Eyes are literally the windows to the inner most aspects of our personality and character traits.  If you look into someones eyes, you can easily tell if they are scared, sad, or worn down inside.  But if you look even closer, you will also be able to see what kind of psychology and personality that person has.  Eyes are literally a window into people’s souls.

Who Do You Think You Are? What Your Taste In Music Says About You, According To Science

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What type of music do you listen to? Why can this otherwise innocent question cause some to sweat with anxiety? It’s because deep down we know that our taste in music is not just a reflection of our musical preference, but also insight into the very essence of who we are. The French scholar Jules Combarieu described the union most eloquently when he explained that “music is the art of thinking with sound,” and no one wants other people listening in on their thoughts. Although it was long suspected that music and personality were deeply entwined, science has recently delved into the intricate relationship and shown just how significant one’s musical preference is.

records

Perhaps one of the most notable studies into the connection between musical preference and personality was conducted by Dr. Adrian North, now working at Curtin University in Australia. In a 2010 study, North surveyed 36,518 people in more than 60 countries about their preference for 104 musical styles, as well as their personality. In doing so, he found that quite a lot about both a person’s personality and their lifestyle can be inferred by their musical taste.

“People do actually define themselves through music and relate to other people through it, but we haven’t known in detail how music is connected to identity,” North explained, as reported by PsychCentral. “We have always suspected a link between music taste and personality. This is the first time that we’ve been able to look at it in real detail. No one has ever done this on this scale before.”

North’s Summary of Music and Personality

Rap/Hip-Hop: high self-esteem, outgoing, not very eco-friendly

Heavy Metal: gentle, low self-esteem, reserved, and comfortable with themselves

Indie Rock: low self-esteem, creative, lazy, headstrong

Electronic/Dance: sociable, headstrong, outgoing, creative

Classical: high self-esteem, introverted, high earners, eco-friendly

Pop: high self esteem, hard working, outgoing, low creativity, nervous

To better understand how music and personality are so deeply entwined, it may be best to figure out what leads a person to listen to a specific song or type of music in the first place. A 2007 study, “Personality and music: Can traits explain how people use music in everyday life?” explained that music was associated with three main psychological functions. These included: helping to improve performance (imagine your workouts without Spotify), helping to stimulate curiosity (imagine how thoughtful you become with a song you truly love), and helping to bring out certain emotions that the listener desires (happy songs for a party, sad songs for getting over a breakup). Also, the reason that a person listens to music — to deal with emotions or as background noise — was also linked to notable differences in personality. Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, co-author of the study, writes that because mood is so closely related to personality it would make sense that musical preference gave insight to who a person was.

More Than Just Personality

Musical preference dictates much more than personality, however.

“I think that if we have the ability to take all factors into account — a person’s age, gender, nationality, social class, everything except their personality — we could probably predict 30 percent of their musical preference,” Chamorro-Premuzic explained to Medical Daily.

This is reflected in North’s research, which showed trends such as those who like “high art music” (opera, jazz, and classical) tended to be better educated, have higher income, and have greater access to financial resources than fans of other music genres.

Unfortunately, as with many psychology studies on personality and music, there was one caveat: participants lying.

“There is a difference between the music that people report to like and what they actually listen to,” Chamorro-Premuzic said. “That’s because people are aware that liking certain music is linked to certain values and personalities.”

Since people are already hypersensitive to the fact that their musical preference reflects their personality, it would make sense that those wishing to portray a certain image would purposely say they prefer a specific genre. However, Chamorro-Premuzic explained that although a person’s musical choices will always change, their personality, as of the ages of 15 to 20, is set. By recording personality and musical choices of volunteers in this age group, it was possible to gain an accurate idea of their personality.

Although personality played a big part in musical choice, other completely unrelated factors also dictate what a person likes to listen to. “You may watch a movie or hear a soundtrack that touches you and you may prefer that song,” said Chamorro-Premuzic, explaining how personal experiences also play a part in musical preference.

Also, despite the fears of suburban parents, listening to violent music will not make a person violent.

“There is no evidence that musical preference can change people’s personalities,” Charmorro-Premuzic said. “The only thing we know is that with certain types of music, people who listen to that music tend to be quite aggressive in the first place. Listening to this music releases their aggressive tendencies, but in the long run it makes them even more aggressive.”