neurosciencestuff:

In 1979 China instituted the one-child policy, which limited every family to just one offspring in a controversial attempt to reduce the country’s burgeoning population. The strictly enforced law had the desired effects: in 2011 researchers estimated that the policy prevented 400 million births. In a new study in Science, researchers find that it has also caused China’s so-called little emperors to be more pessimistic, neurotic and selfish than their peers who have siblings.

Psychologist Xin Meng of the Australian National University in Canberra and her colleagues recruited 421 Chinese young adults born between 1975 and 1983 from around Beijing for a series of surveys and tests that evaluated a variety of psychological traits, such as trustworthiness and optimism. Almost all the participants born after 1979 were only children compared with about one fifth of those born before 1979. The study participants born after the policy went into effect were found to be both less trusting and less trustworthy, less inclined to take risks, less conscientious and optimistic, and less competitive than those born a few years earlier.

“Because of the one-child policy, parents are less likely to teach their child to be imaginative, trusting and unselfish,” Meng says. Without siblings, she notes, the need to share may not be emphasized, which could help explain these findings.

Only children in other parts of the world, however, do not show such striking differences from their peers. Toni Falbo, a social psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin, who was not involved in the study, suggests that larger social forces in China also probably contributed to these results. “There’s a lot of pressure being placed on [Chinese] parents to make their kid the best possible because they only had one,” Falbo says. These types of pressures could harm anyone, even if they had siblings, she says.

Whatever its cause, the personality profile of China’s little emperors may be troubling to a nation hoping to continue its ascent in economic prosperity. The traits marred by the one-child policy, the study authors point out, are exactly those needed in leaders and entrepreneurs.

morgulblade:

johannaisaviking:

plenilune:

soyonscruels:

your google searches based on your myers-briggs personality type:

INTJ
nothing, I know everything already
MENSA
memorable Fall activities
help, I’m feeling this ‘bizarre’ human feeling = ‘love’ and can’t figure out how to out-rationalize it
Schroedinger’s Cat and other joyless brilliant people things

INFP
Why don’t people love each other?
Conspiracy theories
Annie Dillard
Poetry about rain
Theories about puppies

oh no

ENFP
how to start a fortune 500 company
how to start a non profit
how to run a marathon
how to become an astronaut
how to brew your own beer
LSD
tantric sex with your lover
should I become gay
eat pray love travel tour with friends and bright colors
warehouse parties
rave drugs
should I sell all my stuff and drink my way across Europe?
am I an alcoholic

I was not anticipating this level of accuracy oh god.

ENTJ
time management techniques
aerospace engineering
how to be a woman without emotion
moderate political viewpoints
Catholic dating sites
how to run a successful political campaign
love is a foreign language
world travel, by yourself

How to be a woman without emotion. Beautiful. 

This is painfully stupid. This is why the MBTI should be thrown out and never remembered. When people are armed with whatever scraps of information they barely understand, and attempt to use self-report measures, the result is a cluster festival of nonsense with zero external validity.

foxnewsofficial:

send me naked pictures of your personality 

Need to solve a tough problem? A study published online February 11 in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin suggests you are more likely to succeed if you solve it on another person’s be­half. Psychologists asked 137 students to picture either themselves or a stranger stuck in a tower and to think of a way to escape using only a rope that did not reach the ground. Of the students who imagined a stranger in the tower, 66 percent found the solution—divide the rope lengthwise and tie the pieces together—compared with 48 percent of those who pictured themselves in the tower. Co-author Evan Polman of New York University says one implication is that if we imagine that our problems belong to someone else, we might find better solutions.

Wooooooooooow. The obvious has never been stated in so many words. Yes, a lot of people find it easier to give advice than to generate it for themselves, this is a part of popular culture. Studies like these fill social psychology textbooks. It is kind of silly. They’re stating the obvious, but make no progress in uncovering WHY this is the case.

I had the opportunity to take a visual personality inventory today.
It certainly is unique in its presentation. It would be interesting to find correlations between psychological types and their graphical representations. Would this reveal a previously unknown dimension within types?

Here’s what it has to say about me, a Jungian INTJ:

“You are Cautious, Prudent, and Calm.”

• Graphic:

[See Link]

• Details:

Cautious

You very rarely make a move without first considering the pros and cons and, therefore, rarely do anything foolish or extravagant.

You are not rash; you almost never act before you think and, therefore, rarely end up doing things you later regret.

Prudent

You look before you leap, think before you act, consider what you’re about to say before you open your mouth to speak; that’s why you rarely have to eat your words.

You usually don’t get excited easily or blurt out the first thing that comes to mind without considering the consequences.

Calm

You rarely become irritated, generally accept people as they are, take things as they come, and feel relaxed in most situations.

You do not let a minor annoyance escalate to a confrontation. You don’t regularly snap at those around you or fly off the handle with little provocation.

Unflappable

You are not a slave to your emotions. It takes a lot to upset or unnerve you. That’s why you’re a good person to have around in a crisis.

You don’t let it all hang out, which means that those around you often don’t know the pressures you’re under or what you’re going through. You’re not the kind of person people run from in a crisis.

Innovative

You come up with a lot of ideas; if one doesn’t work out, there’s always another waiting in the wings. You often have interesting solutions to difficult problems. You’re practically a one-person brainstorming session.

You are less interested changing the world than in dealing with things as they are. Unlike those who spend all their time trying to solve problems, you prefer to zero in on things that work and stick with them.

Introspective

You like your own company; you’re a very interesting person. Tracking your own mental processes, knowing what you’re thinking and why you do what you do, is important to you. Often, what’s going on in your mind is more compelling than what’s going on outside. For the most part, those with a high score on the “introspective” trait enjoy reading, taking long walks, learning new things, and other solitary activities.

You are not someone who is constantly looking to be among a group of friends; you never feel bored when you are by yourself.

Creative

You are good at solving problems, coming up with original ideas, and seeing connections between things, connections that most other people miss. People with a high score on the “creative” trait often are employed in such fields as finance and scientific research, and enjoy avant garde and classical music as well as literary fiction and scholarly non-fiction.

You do not shun abstractions and concepts in favor of the concrete and tangible.

Competent

You strive to master everything you undertake. You tend to learn quickly and do not shy away from challenges.

You are not a “que sera sera” type of person, nor do you go easy on yourself when attempting to master a new skill or get a job done.

Astute

You are a quick study. You generally don’t need to have things explained to you more than once. When presented with a problem, you will often have an instant understanding of where to look for the solution.

You do not take your sweet time when presented with a new task to complete or problem to solve. You don’t avoid assignments that require you to learn new skills.

Pragmatic

You have found that people with sad stories are usually looking for attention or have brought their problems upon themselves. Therefore, you don’t obsess about what others are thinking or feeling; if they have something important to tell you, you figure, they’ll just come out and say it.

You do not feel the need to always know what people around you are thinking and feeling, and you don’t encourage them to turn to you when they have problems.