Most biological psychologists are comfortable with the idea that at least some temperamental tendencies, later shaped by experience into personality, are present at birth and are largely determined by genetics. Now Mats Larsson of Orebro University in Sweden is claiming that the patterning of a person’s iris correlates with major personality traits such as warm/trusting versus neurotic/impulsive.
The Swedish team took close-up photos of the irises of their 428 participants, which they correlated with personality questionnaires. Apparently, the two features that define a person’s iris are “crypts” (pits) and “furrows” (curving lines around the outer edge). People with more crypts were likely to have personality test results indicating they are warm, tender and trusting, whereas people with more furrows are rated as neurotic, impulsive and prone to give in to their cravings.
Both iris development in embryos and personality traits such as impulsiveness and poor social skills have been linked to a gene known as PAX6. Consequently, the iris differences could act as a visible marker for other related traits. Personally, I am wary of most “single gene” explanations for traits as complex as neuroticism and impulsiveness, but further research should be able to sort this out. In the meantime, I’d be curious to know what eyes like mine–green with brown “freckles”–might indicate.
11 Comments
huggydrea · February 27, 2007 at 11:47 am
I definitly agree that it takes more than a “single gene” to determine these types of traits. However, for a long time now people have said that after looking deeply into someone’s eyes they get a better sense of who they are or how they are feeling. Also in many studies done on love, the longer a couple spends looking into each others eyes, the deeper in love they are or can become. So I think that the eyes maybe play a bigger role than we think.
sebia · February 27, 2007 at 7:47 pm
In my personal opinion, much of our personality is learned and developed as a result of our enviroment. That’s not to say, though, that biological factors don’t also play a significant role in personality as many psychologist would agree. However, I am not entirely convinced… okay, I find it hard to accept at all… that the shape of the iris is linked to personality traits.
The idea that looking into a person’s eyes can “get a better sense of who they are or how they are feeling,” in my personal experiences has truth. However, I believe a large part of understanding a person by looking into his/her eyes includes perceiving his/her nonverbal cues and body language in addition to eye contact. It would be interesting to see if results from studies on eye contact were a major result of a society’s culture (as I would guess) or if the eye -in and of itself- has much to do with couples’ success.
BSOUTH · February 28, 2007 at 1:00 am
Yes, I agree that a personality complex is influenced by both biological factors and environmental factors. There has to be a strong genetic predisposistion considering the striking similarities that parents often have with their offspring. Although twin studies have also supported the strong notion of environmental influence.
I both agree and disagree with the idea of “getting a better sense of who they are or how they are feeling” by looking at an individuals’ eyes. I think that yes, for sure over time you can understand how someone feels by looking at their eyes… But I think that the signals are more through the structures around the eye area that are more telling than the eyeball, or iris itself. I always kind of dispregarded ever looking straight into someones eyeball– Awkward right? I think many facial expressions begin with the eyes and the rest of the face corresponds.
lyndseallan · March 14, 2007 at 10:03 pm
I think it’s amazing how something so minute and detailed as the iris of an eye can catch someone’s attention long enough to consider it as a possible determinent of personality. It has been one of those long standing battles between nature vs nurture that is brought up again with this proposition. I definately think that a unique balance of biological and environmental factors contibute to the personality of a person. and in the same way I feel as though a personality can be as unique as a fingerprint and that no two people will have an identical on. this could be represented partially by the eye theory as well considering that eyes are so unique they have security scan systems based 100% on the pupil of a persons eye. As far as color goes I’m also a bearer of the green with brown flecks and I’m pretty sure that means you are the ultimate personality lol…well maybe not but it would be nice…
toniobrown · March 14, 2007 at 10:34 pm
Personality is very complex and hard to define even your own. Most of the time personality traits lie on a continuum and differ in situations. I do think that this is a very interesting study. I do agree about the eyes can tell a lot about a person, but i’m not sure about this correlation with ‘pits’ and ‘furrows’. I hope more research is done on this subject. You never know, maybe personality can be be defined/analyzed by a person’s eyes, and maybe biological answers can be more the result of personality traits.
Veronica Kang · March 16, 2007 at 12:13 pm
I agree that you can tell alot by looking into someone’s eye–after all, they are the “windows to your heart.” But I’m curious about how they went on to measure/observe these participants’ crypts and furrows. In participants of different race, who have darker eyes, these crypts and furrows would be hard to observe.
I am interested to hear more about this topic. I just hope people don’t turn to plastic surgery on eyes in order to “hide” certain personalities that appear in the eye when results come out.
kristinottonello · March 16, 2007 at 8:07 pm
I completely agree with the comment about how our personalities are very much determined by our environments. They also change with given situations and over time, so it is hard to study the human eye and determine that a person is warm and trusting versus impulsive and neurotic. These are characteristics that can easily be changed and so how can we label a person as one of these categories for their whole lives by just looking at their eyes?
This study reminds me of phrenology or palm reading, which seem a bit out there. Until they can find evidence to completely support this, I am not a believer. 🙂
mlatino · March 19, 2007 at 6:25 pm
it seems as though an experiment like this would have major problems with validity and with having legitimate findings. It makes me wonder, however, what my eyes would say about me. Even though I think that the eyes can show a lot about a person’s emotional state and can be very expressive, it is hard for me to believe that they can tell anything about a person’s personality. I too think that environment plays a major role in shaping someone’s personality. I think for now we should stick to the tests that we have, and research the iris idea more thoroughly. It is a very interesting study.
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