Personality Explained
Any person, the model purports, can be described by their level of five traits: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness/intellect…extraverts tend to have a larger-than-average orbitofrontal cortex, a region that sits behind the eyes and is especially active when the brain registers rewards… Those that exhibit high conscientiousness are hard working and self-disciplined. They tend to have a larger-than-average lateral prefrontal cortex, enabling them to plan ahead, parse through complex thoughts and make decisions, the scientists found.
Full article on the brain structure of different personalities.
It’s frightening to think about how much of life could be related to the way my brain is formed. But, I do think that we have some control over it. If you know that you tend to be introverted, and you don’t want to be, you can choose to change that.
If scientists find a high degree of correlation between brain structure and personality traits, how long before employers begin to require brain scans before hiring decisions? If certain brain structures are found to be correlated with desirable (or undesirable) traits in workers, will it be legal to discriminate? These are all very tricky ethical issues.
Devon’s idea is interesting. Give prospective employees a brain scan. Then how long would it be before Congress outlawed the practice?
More worrisome: If personality traits have a biological basis, can geneticists manipulate them?
In the thirties and forties, German scientists and sociologists were very interested in the same area of study. At the time they called it: phrenology.
These are very interesting findings but rather difficult to contest or compare. It’s not like I’m going to be able to look in the mirror to find out how my lateral prefrontal cortex compares to the next person’s.