Category: Personality

The immune system was thought to have little effect on the brain — until now.

The immune system is directly responsible for social behaviour and even our personalities, new research finds.

The conclusion comes as a shock to scientists and raises questions about the cause of mental health problems like schizophrenia and autism.

A malfunctioning immune system could be at the heart of these disorders.

Professor Jonathan Kipnis explained why the finding is so shocking to scientists:

“The brain and the adaptive immune system were thought to be isolated from each other, and any immune activity in the brain was perceived as sign of a pathology.

And now, not only are we showing that they are closely interacting, but some of our behavior traits might have evolved because of our immune response to pathogens.

It’s crazy, but maybe we are just multicellular battlefields for two ancient forces: pathogens and the immune system.

Part of our personality may actually be dictated by the immune system.”

For the research in mice and other animals, the scientists blocked a critical immune molecule called interferon-gamma.

The mice (and other animals) then became much less social than they had been before.

The study follows on from findings published last year that there is connection between the brain and the immune system previously thought not to exist.

The link between the immune system and social behaviour makes sense, though, as being social is important but also raises the risk of disease.

Dr Anthony J. Filiano, the study’s lead author, explained:

“It’s extremely critical for an organism to be social for the survival of the species.

It’s important for foraging, sexual reproduction, gathering, hunting.

So the hypothesis is that when organisms come together, you have a higher propensity to spread infection.

So you need to be social, but [in doing so] you have a higher chance of spreading pathogens.

The idea is that interferon gamma, in evolution, has been used as a more efficient way to both boost social behavior while boosting an anti-pathogen response.”

Professor Kipnis said:

“Immune molecules are actually defining how the brain is functioning.

So, what is the overall impact of the immune system on our brain development and function?

I think the philosophical aspects of this work are very interesting, but it also has potentially very important clinical implications.”

The study was published in the journal Nature (Filiano et al., 2016).

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Some perfectionists are also toxic to others.

Wanting to do everything perfectly and appear perfect to others can be bad for the health, research has found.

Perfectionists can suffer health problems because they are under continuous stress.

Professor Gordon Flett, an expert on perfectionism, explains:

“Perfectionism is the need to be – or to appear – perfect.

Perfectionists are persistent, detailed and organized high achievers.

Perfectionists vary in their behaviors: some strive to conceal their imperfections; others attempt to project an image of perfection.

But all perfectionists have in common extremely high standards for themselves or for others.”

Here are ten signs that you are a perfectionist, as devised by Professor Flett:

“Ten Top Signs Your a Perfectionist**

1. You can’t stop thinking about a mistake you made.

2. You are intensely competitive and can’t stand doing worse than others.

3. You either want to do something “just right” or not at all.

4. You demand perfection from other people.

5. You won’t ask for help if asking can be perceived as a flaw or weakness.

6. You will persist at a task long after other people have quit.

7. You are a fault-finder who must correct other people when they are wrong.

8. You are highly aware of other people’s demands and expectations.

9. You are very self-conscious about making mistakes in front of other people.

10. **You noticed the error in the title of this list.”

Sadly, perfectionism has been linked to many emotional and behavioural problems, such as eating disorders, relationships problems and even suicide.

Professor Flett said:

“Perfectionism is not officially recognized as a psychiatric disorder.

However extreme forms of perfectionism should be considered an illness similar to narcissism, obsessive compulsiveness, dependent-personality disorder and other personality disorders because of its links to distress and dysfunction.”

Psychologists have found that there are, broadly, three types of perfectionists:

1. Self-oriented perfectionists strive for perfection for themselves and set their own high standards.
2. Socially prescribed perfectionists strive for perfection because it is important to other people.
3. ‘Other-focused’ perfectionists, though, expect others to be perfect and are extremely critical if they do not meet these high standards.

The worst type of perfectionists are those who expect others to match their own impossibly high standards.

→ Read on: How To Spot a Toxic Perfectionist

The perfectionism scale is published by MHS (Hewitt & Flett, 2004).

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People prefer to interact with others who move in the same way as they do.

The way people move could provide a unique insight into their personality, a new study finds.

In the future it may allow health professionals to diagnose and treat mental health problems.

The study suggests that each person has an ‘individual motor signature’ which defines how they move.

This includes things like the weight of their movement and speed.

In the study people played a mirror game in which they had to copy each other’s movements.

They found that people who moved in similar ways also displayed better collective behaviour.

The researchers think this means that people who move the same way will be able to interact more effectively as well.

Professor Krasimira Tsaneva-Atanasova, one of the study’s authors, said:

“Although human movement has been well studied, what is far less well understood is the differences each of us displays when we move — whether it is faster, or lighter, or smoother for example.

This study shows that people who move in a certain way, will also react in similar ways when they are performing joint tasks.

Essentially, our movements give an insight into our inherent personality traits.

What we demonstrate is that people typically want to react and interact with people who are similar to themselves.

But what our study also shows is that movement gives an indication of a person’s behavioural characteristics.

This could therefore be used in the future to help diagnose patients with certain conditions by studying how they move and react to others.”

The study was published in the Journal of The Royal Society Interface (Słowiński et al., 2016).

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Eye colour could reveal an aspect of your personality, study finds.

Lighter eyes have been linked to more egocentric, competitive, skeptical individuals, research finds.

Darker eyes, though, are linked to sympathy, altruism and a higher altruistic behaviour.

The study, which was conducted in Australia, only held for those with Northern European ancestry, though, the study’s authors explain:

“A competitive person is characterised by a tendency to be antagonistic, egocentric, and sceptical of others’ intentions rather than cooperative…

…light-eyed people, whatever their sex, would be more competitive psychologically than dark eyed people if they are of north European descent.”

The authors provide an evolutionary explanation for the difference:

“…the rare-color advantage of light eyed females, is likely to increase the chance of being noticed by a male.

Moreover, competitive personality traits (such as wanting to beat others and being sceptical of others’ intentions) secure the long-term commitment necessary for self and off-spring survival.

Whilst some may argue that it is unlikely that a male would choose a disagreeable female we argue that mating is not the sole choice of males and that the disagreeable traits of competitive women are directed primarily at other female competition rather than towards males.”

The study was published in the journal Current Biology (Gardiner & Jackson, 2010).

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A certain type of perfectionism can lead to depression, anxiety and eating disorders.

A dark type of perfectionism focusing primarily on anxieties about being perfect can hurt many areas of people’s lives, a new review reports.

Perfectionism of this type involves constantly worrying about reaching impossibly high standards and making mistakes.

It also involves worrying about letting others down.

The psychologists found that the personality trait was most strongly linked to burnout at work.

This may be because high performance in the workplace can often go unrewarded.

The ‘good’ type of perfectionism

In contrast, a related personality trait which focuses on striving for perfection is linked to more positive outcomes.

People who set themselves high goals and work towards them pro-actively do better than those who focus more on their anxieties.

The conclusions come from a review of 43 different studies conducted over 20 years.

Dr Andrew Hill, the study’s lead author, said:

“Perfectionistic concerns capture fears and doubts about personal performance, which creates stress that can lead to burnout when people become cynical and stop caring.

It also can interfere with relationships and make it difficult to cope with setbacks because every mistake is viewed as a disaster.”

Being an anxious perfectionist has been linked to all kinds of health problems including depression, anxiety, eating disorders and even early death.

Most people have some tendencies towards perfectionism in some parts of their lives.

Dr Hill said:

“People need to learn to challenge the irrational beliefs that underlie perfectionistic concerns by setting realistic goals, accepting failure as a learning opportunity, and forgiving themselves when they fail.

Creating environments where creativity, effort and perseverance are valued also would help.”

The research was published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Review (Hill & Curran, 2015).

• Read on: How To Spot a Toxic Perfectionist

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Link explained by similar set of genes coding for both eye colour and a tendency towards alcoholism.

People with blue eyes have a higher chance of becoming alcoholics, a new study finds.

In fact, light-coloured eyes in general — whether green, grey or brown — are more strongly linked to alcoholism.

In comparison, people with dark brown eyes have a lower chance of becoming alcoholics.

The connection is likely down to a similar set of genes coding for both eye colour and a tendency towards alcoholism.

Dr Dawei Li, one of the study’s authors, said:

“This suggests an intriguing possibility — that eye color can be useful in the clinic for alcohol dependence diagnosis.”

The study was published in the American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics (Sulovari et al., 2015).

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The worst type of perfectionists are toxic to other people.

The worst type of perfectionists are those who expect others to match their own impossibly high standards.

‘Other-focused’ perfectionists tend to be antisocial, narcissistic and have an aggressive sense of humour, a new study finds.

The results come from research which compared the characteristics of three different types of perfectionists:

1. Self-oriented perfectionists strive for perfection for themselves and set their own high standards.
2. Socially prescribed perfectionists strive for perfection because it is important to other people.
3. ‘Other-focused’ perfectionists, though, expect others to be perfect and are extremely critical if they do not meet these high standards.

Both self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionists are highly critical of themselves, but not particularly of other people.

Of the three types, the self-oriented perfectionist gets on best with others.

They tend to care about others’ expectations and needs and prefer the type of humour that enhances relationships.

Socially prescribed perfectionists, however, tend to be low on self-esteem and feel inferior.

They tend to be unemotional and antisocial and mostly focus their humour on belittling themselves.

The other-focused perfectionists, though, have traits of psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism, the survey of 229 people found.

Other-focused perfectionists feel they are better than other people and they are quite antisocial.

Their sense of humour is aggressive and tends to make other people feel worse about themselves.

Professor Joachim Stoeber, the study’s author, said:

“Other-oriented perfectionism is a ‘dark’ form of perfectionism positively associated with narcissistic, antisocial and uncaring personality characteristics.”

The study was published in the Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment. (Stoeber, 2015).

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