In a special report, a team from the University of Minnesota shared a surprising discovery.
They found a close link between how we think and our personality, the traits that make us who we are.
Personality is all about who we are. It tells if we are outgoing, polite, hardworking, curious, or sometimes a bit worried. It impacts our actions, feelings, and thoughts.
On the other hand, our cognitive ability shows our skills. It’s about understanding hard things like language, math, and drawing logical conclusions.
A lot of people think that certain connections exist. For example, we often think that quiet people are smarter. But, scientists didn’t know much about these connections until now.
A Landmark Study
The study, printed in a prestigious journal, is not a small one. It uses information from more than 1,300 studies from the past 100 years. It involves over 2 million people from 50 countries. The data comes from many places.
It includes academic journals, test manuals, military databases, and even companies’ private databases.
This big study looks closely at different personality traits and cognitive abilities. It covers many cultures and different types of people.
The study lists 79 personality traits, like being modest or agreeable. It also includes 97 cognitive abilities, like reading speed or memory.
The Hidden Connections
Deniz Ones, one of the authors of the study, said that knowing the connection between personality and intelligence helps us understand why people behave the way they do.
These findings change the way we understand human differences and uniqueness.
Here are some interesting discoveries from the study:
People who are active and full of energy tend to know a lot. They remember things better and process information faster. No matter what the subject is, active people tend to know more about it.
People who often feel sad or worried might find it harder to gain knowledge or think logically.
People who work hard and care about others usually have better verbal and math skills. This shows an exciting link between personality traits and how we learn.
People who are open-minded, meaning they are open to new ideas, often have many cognitive abilities.
A Long Journey of Discovery
Kevin Stanek, another author, said that it took more than 13 years and a team of over 30 volunteers to complete the study.
The team is thankful for the help from many scholars, librarians, and companies who contributed their time and data.
One interesting thing that came out of the research was that research methods haven’t changed much in the last 100 years.
Modern personality research often still uses people reporting about themselves. The authors now want to try new methods like sensor studies and AI to assess personality traits and cognitive abilities.
If you care about brain health, please read studies about how the Mediterranean diet could protect your brain health, and Vitamin B supplements could help reduce dementia risk.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies that high-fiber diet could help lower the dementia risk, and these antioxidants could help reduce dementia risk.
The study was published in PNAS.
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