Category: Personality

Graphology, or handwriting analysis, claims to reveal people’s personalities and more, but the science is very doubtful.

Graphology is the analysis of handwriting to try and extract information about personality, psychological states, marital compatibility, personnel selection and even medical conditions.

Unfortunately, it is total baloney.

Graphology is now considered by scientists to be a pseudoscience with little to recommend it.

Scientific research finds that graphology really reveals very little about a person, other than whether they are man or woman and rich or poor.

The attraction of graphology

At first glance the myth that our personalities might be hidden in our handwriting is attractive.

The way each of us writes is so personal, apparently in just the same way our personalities are so individual.

Handwriting is also a mode of personal expression, a creative act we have been developing our whole lives.

Sure, people can guess the author’s gender from a handwriting sample about 60 percent to 70 percent of the time, bearing in mind that 50 percent is pure chance.

People also perform better than chance at guessing an author’s socioeconomic status from their handwriting.

But can you really read any deep psychological truths into a person’s handwriting?

Maybe people who have fast handwriting are impulsive?

Maybe untidy handwriting means depression?

Graphologists (not to be confused with forensic document examiners) have gone much further, though, in interpreting handwriting.

They have made all sorts of claims, including that graphology can help you:

• Select your perfect marriage partner.
• Find out whether your partner is cheating on you.
• Identify which potential employees will become violent on the job.
• Decide which applicants for a loan are credit-worthy.

Impressive claims, no?

Let’s check them out…

Putting graphology to the test

Geoffrey Dean has reviewed two hundred different studies into whether graphology can tell us anything about personality (Dean, 1992).

Adding up the effect of each of these studies showed that graphology has a combined power of about…wait for it…zero.

Well, not quite zero but still very, very small – so small as to be insignificant.

That’s not to say that some of the plentiful studies on graphology don’t find more positive results, some of them do, even though they’re usually still small.

But, unsurprisingly, these studies are published by graphologists themselves in sources that cannot be considered reputable.

For example they paid for it to be published.

Of the studies that are published in peer-reviewed journals that use rigorous scientific methodologies, hardly any show an effect.

As a result, the respectability of graphology within the scientific community has now been all but wiped out.

Using graphology in personnel selection

Of course, the simple fact that empirical studies show it has no validity hasn’t stopped graphologists continuing to make all sorts of claims for their ‘science’.

Professor Barry Beyerstein, a scientific sceptic who was well-known as an investigator of questionable psychological techniques and products, points out that claims about the validity of graphology are potentially damaging.

Beyerstein (2007) explains how he was once told by a graphologist that he had been sexually molested by his parents and that he had a drug problem.

Needless to say neither of these ‘interpretations’ were true.

Perhaps one of the most widespread, and potentially damaging uses, is in recruitment.

It is thought between 5 percent and 10 percent of businesses in both the US and the UK use graphology as part of the recruitment process.

In other parts of the world the figure is even higher.

Astonishingly between 38 percent and 93 percent of businesses in France use graphology – probably because one of graphology’s pioneers, Jean Hyppolyte Michon, was French.

Still, it’s difficult to know exactly how many companies still use graphology because many deny it, despite probably using it (Bradley, 2005).

They’re right to keep it secret: it’s embarrassing.

A recent review of the literature on the use of graphology specifically in recruitment was carried out by the British Psychological Society.

They found that graphology has exactly the same validity in personnel selection as astrology, i.e. none.

Accepting the evidence

The reason people tend not to think too critically about graphology is probably because it seems so intuitive.

Indeed studies have shown that people know how to change their handwriting so as to affect other people’s impression of them (Loewenthal, 1975).

In other words, we seem to share some beliefs in common about what certain features of handwriting signify, although these connections are merely illusory.

Despite the intuitive nature of the connections between handwriting and personality, we have to bow to the sheer weight of evidence against graphology.

And this evidence keeps telling us that it doesn’t work.

Consequently, people who believe in graphology should rightly be treated with the same suspicion as those who believe in astrology.

Humour them if you wish, educate them if you can, but don’t take them seriously.

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People with these personality traits as teenagers are likely to live longer.

Empathy, calmness and energy are among the personality traits that predict a long life, research finds.

These teenage personality traits predicted people’s longevity five decades later.

Along with these, people who are tidier, intellectually curious and more mature also live longer.

In contrast, people who were impulsive as teens were not likely to live as long.

Impulsive people tend to act without thinking or controlling themselves.

The conclusions come from a study that followed 26,845 people for almost 50 years, on average, starting in 1960.

All were asked about their personality, family background and later income and jobs.

The results showed that six personality factors were linked to a long life:

• energy,
• empathy,
• calmness,
• tidiness,
• intellectual curiosity,
• and maturity.

Only impulsiveness was linked to a shorter lifespan.

Personality may affect lifespan in a number of ways, the authors write:

“Life course mechanisms linking personality to poorer health outcomes include the adoption of poor health behaviours and long-term effects of wear and tear on the immune, endocrine and cardiovascular systems.

Maladaptive traits also appear to limit later educational attainment, impede mid-life occupational advancement and increase risk of divorce-social and socioeconomic factors linked to later death.”

However, it’s surprising how predictive adolescent personality can be, the study’s authors write:

“In one sense, the tracing of personality-mortality associations back to adolescence is surprising because the high school years are widely seen as a time of personality development and malleability.”

So, although people may change over the years, it is not enough to wipe out the effects of personality on longevity.

The study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health (Chapman et al., 2019).

Outgoing or introverted? Which personality types are best at fighting off infection?

Outgoing, sociable people also have the strongest immune systems, a study finds.

Extraverts typically seek out new experiences, prefer to take charge and are outgoing and talkative.

Extraverts tend to have better social skills, they feel more positive emotions and are more motivated.

Those who are the most conscientious and careful, though, are most likely to have a weaker immune system response.

Conscientious people are systematic and dutiful and are more likely to follow through on their plans than their less conscientious peers.

The research found no evidence, though, that a tendency towards negative emotions was associated with poor health.

The study, published in the snappily titled journal Psychoneuroendochrinology, gave personality tests to 121 health adults (Vedhara et al., 2014).

Along with assessing the five major personality factors — extraversion, neuroticism, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness — participants had blood samples taken to measure genetic factors known to be important in immune function.

Professor Kavita Vedhara, who led the study, explained the results:

“Our results indicated that ‘extraversion’ was significantly associated with an increased expression of pro-inflammatory genes and that ‘conscientiousness’ was linked to a reduced expression of pro-inflammatory genes.

In other words, individuals who we would expect to be exposed to more infections as a result of their socially orientated nature (i.e., extraverts) appear to have immune systems that we would expect can deal effectively with infection.

While individuals who may be less exposed to infections because of their cautious/conscientious dispositions have immune systems that may respond less well.

We can’t, however, say which came first.

Is this our biology determining our psychology or our psychology determining our biology?”

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What message are your shoes sending to the world about your personality — psychology research reveals all.

People make surprisingly accurate guesses about other people’s personalities from relatively little information, a psychology study reveals.

Shoes are often said to be a good indicator of a person’s personality — and psychology research agrees.

A study of 208 people looking only at pictures of shoes has found people could pick out some personality traits of their owners.

The shoes in the pictures were the ones the owner wore most often.

So, here is your guide to reading someone’s personality just by looking at their shoes (and what your shoes are telling other people).

Practical shoes = agreeable personality

To spot a more agreeable person, look for affordable and practical shoes.

People wearing shoes with pointy toes, those that are obviously branded or expensive, mean the wearer is likely to be less agreeable.

Anxiously attached people tend to wear shoes that look brand new.

‘Anxiously attached’ is psychologist-talk for people who are needy.

Needy people want your approval and perhaps their shiny, new shoes are one way they hope to get it.

The psychology study’s authors explain:

“People with anxious orientation constantly desire caring and attention.

One strategy for achieving attention is to decorate oneself in an expressive way, so that others would easily detect one’s style.

Thus, it is possible that anxiously attached people tend to wear shoes that are more in line with their personal characteristics, which makes them more observable and means they will more easily stand out.”

Worn out shoes = extraverted personality

Naturally, people with more money tend to wear more stylish shoes.

Women, in general, also tend to wear more expensive, branded shoes than men.

People wearing worn out shoes and/or high tops are more likely to be extraverted.

High-topped shoes are also linked to being more conscientious.

In general, people are pretty good at reading personality from shoes, the psychology study’s authors write:

“Observers agreed on many of the shoe owner characteristics, and they were reasonably accurate; observer ratings were correlated with the shoe owners’ self-ratings.”

Errors about personality and shoes

However, the people in the study also made some consistent mistakes when trying to read personality from shoes.

Colourful, bright shoes did not necessarily belong to extraverted people.

Attractive shoes in good condition did not necessarily belong to conscientious people.

Shabby shoes did not necessarily belong to a liberal!

In fact, you can tell very little about someone’s politics from their shoes, apparently.

The study was published in the Journal of Research in Personality (Gillath et al., 2012).

The signs of internet trolling and personality traits linked to it as well as how to handle internet trolls.

Trolling on the internet is the process of posting inflammatory, off-topic or insincere messages online in the hope of provoking other people.

A psychology study finds that internet trolls (people who engage in trolling) are more likely to have dark triad personality traits.

Narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy are the dark triad traits.

A fourth trait that trolls often have is enjoying schadenfreude.

Schadenfreude is a German word that means feeling pleasure at another person’s misfortune.

Definition of internet trolling

The practice of winding other people up online is known as ‘trolling’.

Online trolls typically hide behind fake names or anonymous accounts.

They are to be found in the comments threads of most media outlets, on Reddit, a popular internet discussion forum, on Twitter and just about anywhere that online discussions take place.

Signs someone is trolling

‘Trolls’ get pleasure out of drawing others into pointless, inflammatory, off-topic and sometimes ill-mannered interactions.

Here are some common signs that someone is trolling:

• Patronising or dismissive tone: asking someone why they are so angry winds them up more.
• Off-topic comments: remarks unrelated to the thread irritate other users.
• Being oblivious: apparently being emotionally unaffected by anything aimed at them.
• Ignoring evidence: taking no notice of facts and continuing with their own agenda.

How to handle internet trolling

The very best way to handle a troll is to ignore them.

The classic online saying is: “Don’t feed the trolls.”

Trolls want an emotional reaction, they want to know they are hurting you.

Handle a troll by not giving them the pleasure of seeing your pain, or even of acknowledging their existence.

The only real recourse in handling a troll is to report them to the site’s moderators if their behaviour becomes too disruptive.

Anti-social and sadistic internet trolls

National governments are not above hiring trolls to further their ends.

Some famous trolls-for-hire include:

• The Chinese government’s 50 Cent Party who are paid to create 440 million pro-government social media posts each year.
• Russian Wikipedia trolls who post true information out of context to make political points.
• Saudi Twitter trolls hired by the government to spread disinformation about the Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Dr Pamela Brubaker, author of a study on trolling, explained:

“People who exhibit those traits known as the dark triad are more likely to demonstrate trolling behaviors if they derive enjoyment from passively observing others suffer.

They engage in trolling at the expense of others.”

It is hardly surprising, then, that trolling is considered by many a type of anti-social behaviour and is strongly associated with sadistic personality disorder.

People who like trolling others online have also been found to enjoy hurting others in real life — a classic sign of a sadist (Buckels et al., 2019).

Internet trolling on Reddit

For their study, researchers Brigham Young and Arizona University conducted a survey of 400 Reddit users, asking them about their personalities and any trolling behaviours.

The results showed that people who enjoyed seeing other people suffer were more likely to engage in trolling behaviours.

Dr Scott Church, study co-author, said:

“This behavior may happen because it feels appropriate to the medium.

So, heavy users of the platform may feel like any and all trolling is ‘functional’ simply because it’s what people do when they go on Reddit.”

Internet trolls claim that their own dysfunctional behaviour is merely a way of communicating with others and is not destructive.

Dr Brubaker said:

“They are more concerned with enhancing their own online experience rather than creating a positive online experience for people who do not receive the same type of enjoyment or pleasure from such provocative discussions.”

In other words, trolls are enjoying themselves and do not care about their effect on others.

Internet trolling vs. speaking out

People who ‘speak out’ and voice their opinions online are quite different to trolls, the study found.

Speaking out is not related to trolling behaviours, suggesting civil but heated online discussion is possible.

Dr Church said:

“Remember who you are when you go online.

It helps when we think of others online as humans, people with families and friends like you and me, people who feel deeply and sometimes suffer.

When we forget their identities as actual people, seeing them instead as merely usernames or avatars, it becomes easier to engage in trolling.”

Being open-minded is the key, said Dr Brubaker:

“Digital media gives us the power to connect with people who have similar and different ideas, interests, and experiences from our own.

As we connect with people online, we should strive to be more respectful of others and other points of view, even when another person’s perspective may not align with our own.

Each of us has the power to be an influence for good online. We can do this by exercising mutual respect.

We can build others up and applaud the good online.”

The study was published in the journal Social Media and Society (Brubaker et al., 2021).