Category: Personality

What happens in the brain when readers strongly identify with fictional characters.

People who enjoy fantasising are most likely to lose themselves in fiction, new research finds.

Those high in fantasising — or ‘trait identification’, as the researchers call it — experience strong involvement with the feelings and actions of characters in books, plays and movies.

They may feel as though they actually are one of their favourite fictional characters, experiencing their emotions and imagining how it would feel if those events were happening to them.

The more people get immersed in fiction, the more they use a part of the brain to think about fictional characters that they use to think about themselves.

The study involved 19 fans of the book and TV show ‘Game of Thrones’, who were asked to pick their favourite character

Their brains were scanned while they thought about themselves, a friend or a Game of Thrones character.

The results showed that people high in trait identification (fantasising) showed higher activation in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex, which is implicated in how we think about ourselves and close friends.

The area of the brain was particularly active when people thought about the character they identified with the most.

Mr Timothy Broom, the study’s first author, said:

“People who are high in trait identification not only get absorbed into a story, they also are really absorbed into a particular character.

They report matching the thoughts of the character, they are thinking what the character is thinking, they are feeling what the character is feeling.

They are inhabiting the role of that character.”

The study helps show why fiction can be so powerful for some people.

Dr Dylan Wanger, study co-author, said:

“For some people, fiction is a chance to take on new identities, to see worlds though others’ eyes and return from those experiences changed.

What previous studies have found is that when people experience stories as if they were one of the characters, a connection is made with that character, and the character becomes intwined with the self.

In our study, we see evidence of that in their brains.”

→ Read on: Fiction can change your behaviour, fiction can increase empathy and your favourite fictional villain can reveal your personality.

The study was published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (Broom et al., 2021).

Personality change is possible with the right strategies.

Most people want to change their personality, research finds.

The most desirable changes for people are to be more extraverted, more conscientious and more emotionally stable.

It is easy to see why:

• Extraverts are generally self-confident and cheerful and can also be impulsive, sensation-seekers.
• Conscientious people tend to be more self-disciplined and they aim for achievement.
• The emotionally stable are less likely to experience mental health problems.

Despite their aims, though, people find it hard to change their personality, the research revealed.

In fact, some of those trying to change their personality actually see shifts in the opposite direction.

The conclusions come from a group of around 360 college students and a group of approximately 500 people ranging in ages.

All were given a personality test and asked what, if any, aspects of their personality they would like to change.

The students and members of the general population were then surveyed again six months and a year later, respectively.

Dr Erica Baranski, the study’s first author, explained the results:

“In both samples, the desire to change at ‘time one’ did not predict actual change in the desired direction at all at ‘time two’.

In the general population sample, we didn’t find that personality change goals predicted any change in any direction.”

While the general population experienced no change in their personality, the college students saw some shifts in the opposite direction than desired.

Those that wanted to become more conscientious became less conscientious.

Young people wanting to become more extraverted became more agreeable and emotionally stable.

These changes might reflect the fact that college students are at a transformational point in their lives, Dr Baranski said:

“College students are thrown into this new environment, and they may be unhappy and may look within selves to become happier and change some aspect of their personality.

But, meanwhile, there is a bombardment of other things that they’re told they need to achieve, like doing well in a class or choosing a major or getting an internship, and those goals might take precedence.

Even though they know more sustained and introspective change might be better, the short-term effort is more attractive and more necessary in the moment.”

Strategies for personality change

Other studies have been more optimistic about personality change.

For example, psychological therapies do make people more emotionally stable.

Being more physically active makes people more extraverted, conscientious, agreeable and open to new experience.

Indeed, Dr Baranski thinks people can change their personality, but it requires more dedicated effort:

“There is evidence in clinical psychology that therapeutic coaching leads to change in personality and behavior, and there is recent evidence that suggests that when there’s a lot of regular interaction with an experimenter, personality change is possible.

But when individuals are left to their own devices, change may not be as likely.”

One of the keys to personality change is making very specific behavioural plans for certain situations.

For example, if you want to be more extraverted, you might say to yourself: “If I see someone I know, then I’ll go over and say hello.”

The new, desired behaviours can lead to changes in self-concept.

Dr Baranski  concluded:

“Across all the studies that have been done on this topic over the last several years, it’s clear that most people want to change an aspect of their personality.

If left unattended, those goals aren’t achieved, so it would be helpful for people who have those goals to know what is necessary for them to accomplish them.”

Time itself naturally changes our personalities, often for the better.

As they get older, many people become more emotionally stable, more agreeable and more conscientious, one study has found.

Somewhere approaching half of the participants in that study saw changes in their personality over five decades.

→ Read on: How to change your personality

The study was published in the Journal of Personality Research (Baranski et al., 2020).

How higher education changes your personality.

University education has a positive effect on people’s personalities, recent research finds.

People generally become more extraverted after completing higher education.

The personalities of students from poorer backgrounds benefit even more from attending university.

Along with increased extraversion, these students become more agreeable.

Extraversion and agreeableness are two of the five major aspects of personality.

The other three are openness to experience, neuroticism and conscientiousness.

The conclusions come from a study of 575 adolescents who were given personality tests and followed up 8 years later.

The authors think these changes in personality are down to university life, rather than the teaching.

Dr Sonja Kassenboehmer, the study’s first author, said:

“We see quite clearly that students’ personalities change when they go to university.

Universities provide an intensive new learning and social environment for adolescents, so it is not surprising that this experience could impact on students’ personality.

It is good news that universities not only seem to teach subject-specific skills, but also seem to succeed in shaping skills valued by employers and society.”

→ Read on: How to change your personality

The study was published in the journal Oxford Economic Papers (Kassenboehmer et al., 2018).