“People’s voices can make a huge and immediate impression on us.”
What happens in the brain when readers strongly identify with fictional characters.
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).
Both personality types are antisocial so are less concerned about the damage being done to society by the pandemic.
Young people are at particular risk now because of the COVID pandemic.
The type is characterised by negative thinking in a range of areas.
These personality types are more easily persuaded than others.
We reveal ourselves through our musical preferences and our personalities are also shaped by them.
How higher education changes your personality.
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).
It may be useful for people with antisocial or even violent tendencies.
The reason people stockpiled toilet paper in the pandemic.
The reason people stockpiled toilet paper in the pandemic.
Conscientious and emotional people were the most likely to stockpile toilet paper in March 2020, a new study finds.
Despite calls from governments around the world to avoid panic buying, sales of toilet paper went up 700 percent in response to the pandemic.
But why toilet paper?
Apparently, people feel safer with more toilet paper in the house.
The study’s authors write:
“…people experience an increased sensitivity to disgust in times of a spreading disease and toilet paper is hypothesized to serve as a symbol of safety alleviating the perceived threat.
Consequently, stockpiling toilet paper during the Covid-19 pandemic should be observed primarily among those who feel particularly threatened by the virus.”
The study included 966 people in 22 countries who were given personality tests and asked about their toilet paper consumption in recent weeks.
The results showed that people who felt most threatened by the pandemic were more likely to stockpile toilet paper.
High emotionality — often known as neuroticism — was the personality trait that most strongly predicted toilet paper stockpiling.
Emotional people are those who tend to worry and feel more anxious.
The other personality trait linked to stockpiling toilet paper was conscientiousness.
People who are conscientious tend to be perfectionist, hard workers who prefer planning ahead.
The study also found that older people and Americans were more prone to stockpiling than the young and European.
Although stockpiling has been labelled selfish, the threat that people faced has a strong effect, the authors write:
“Although stockpiling as a result of perceived threat might be considered selfish by some, it is important to note that it would not necessarily reflect a dispositional lack of prosociality.
Instead, even the most humble and moral individuals might stockpile toilet paper as long as they feel sufficiently threatened by the pandemic.”
The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE (Garbe et al., 2020).
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