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Petaurus_australis t1_ixd2v2l wrote

Isn't this tautological? Personalities ARE brain responses / processes, they've essentially just said "similar personalities are similar".

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kittenTakeover t1_ixd7ut1 wrote

Not exactly. It's possible, although probably less likely, that similar macro expressions of the brain, called behavior, could result from many different internal configurations within the brain. I guess this study is ruling out some level of variance in the internal structures.

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Fmeson t1_ixd7op7 wrote

I dont personally think so. It's non obvious to me at what level similar personalities should show physical similarities, and it's very interesting that, for example, gender doesn't result in as much similarity.

It's also interesting to consider the cases where looking at imagery didn't result in similar fmri scans despite similar personality.

With this sort of research they may be able to do brain scans and tell you about your own personality, and that's wild.

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dasein88 t1_ixd7f6b wrote

It's only tautological if you take "personality" to literally mean "pattern of neurological responses to similar sensory input".

This is a pretty non-standard way of defining "personality", and certainly not the way people learn the word...

So no it's not tautological.

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Strazdas1 t1_ixgz89n wrote

>certainly not the way people learn the word

so why are we still teaching the wrong definition?

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drTNT t1_ixhkp2d wrote

Probably because we teach kids basic vocabulary before we teach them about neurological responses to sensory input

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TimeIsTheMindOfSpace t1_ixfr81q wrote

No that's like saying listening to Bach IS such and such brain activity, if analized at right level. Even if everyone's brain responded identically to Bach, it tells us nothing about the meaning or actual experience aesthetically, emotionally, personally etc.

Reductionism is a menace.

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murderedbyaname t1_ixd83s9 wrote

How personalities are or are not shaped by the cultures that people are raised in is the takeaway, I think? Why are some people able to make the leap in perspective to understanding another culture? If it's just how you're raised, then why is this possible?

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Strazdas1 t1_ixgz5sw wrote

no, because similar personalities do not have to mean the same brain activity patterns, but this study shows it likely do.

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HalcyonEnder t1_ixe2uw2 wrote

That’s what I gathered too. We just validated the study internet friend.

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chrisdh79 OP t1_ixcr7b6 wrote

From the article: Two neuroimaging studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalography showed that people with similar personalities tend to have similar brain responses when viewing naturalistic stimuli. This effect was stronger than that of similarity in gender, ethnicity, or political affiliation. The study was published in Nature Scientific Reports.

Each person perceives the surrounding world in her/his own specific way. One person might be inspired by looking at a piece of art, another would not even notice it. One person might enjoy participating in an activity, another would see it as a hassle.

Researchers have explored the roots of these alignments at the neurological level and found that shared experiences, close relationships, but also gender and cognitive styles affect whether two persons experiences would be aligned or not. People also tend to synchronize their brain activities during social interactions. It happens passively when the neural activity is evoked by a common stimulus (something triggering our senses). But is this passive neural synchronization related to personality traits?

“Given the growing polarization in our world nowadays, being able to understand how to see the world from someone else’s perspective seems like a critical thing. Our interest was in understanding what enables such alignment across various levels: from behavioral and psychological to the systemic and neural,” said study authors Sandra Matz of Columbia Business School and Moran Cerf of Northwestern University.

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love0_0all t1_ixdrva6 wrote

I think this might explain perceptions of telepathy on psychedelics, personally.

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ph30nix01 t1_ixe5xs9 wrote

Almost like we have basic blue prints in there.

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Fast_Forever_2491 t1_ixe6o62 wrote

So, the pattern is important? What I get from this is that diversity is a force of nature despite race or ethnicity. But, I'm assuming that the scientists are getting better at recognizing neural patterns in the brain which allows them to better study the how the brain works.

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SplitPerspective t1_ixfun9y wrote

In short, free will is an illusion (within our current bounded system). The culmination of all possible permutations of socioeconomic interactions are fixed within this bounded system, so it’s easy then to discern the probable responses and actions given an understanding of one’s life’s journey.

I mean, the first clue was all the tech companies collecting personal data and being able to accurately predict spending patterns and interests, should have been quite obvious.

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Funktastic34 t1_ixgmmyx wrote

Have to disagree with you there. One person could perceive the action as positive through an entirely diffeent part of their brain than another

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