14 DAY TRIAL // It is said that the eyes are the window of the soul.
The saying bears some truth in it, as a Swedish research team at Orebro University has found that it is possible to predict an individual's personality through his/her eyes. More specifically, by reading his/her irises.
After the research that investigated pits and lines in the irises of 428 subjects, the team has found correlating models that indicated warm-heartedness and trust or neuroticism and impulsiveness.
The researchers took close-up pictures of the subjects' irises, and the subjects were also asked to fill in a questionnaire investigating their personalities. The close-up pictures were employed for detecting crypts (pits) and contraction furrows (lines curving around the outer edge of the iris), which emerge when pupils dilate. The team discovered that individuals with more crypts were likely to be loving, warm and trusting, while more furrows in the iris edge point to a neurotic and impulsive personality, more prone to cravings.
It is long known that at least some traits of the personality are hereditary. But also the way the iris modulates is determined by a gene called PAX6, with a major role in the iris' development.
Previous investigations revealed that a mutant variation of PAX6 was connected to impulsiveness and poor social skills. "These findings support the notion that people with different iris configurations tend to develop along different trajectories in regards to personality," said lead researcher Dr Matt Larsson, a behavioral scientist. "Differences in the iris can be used as a biomarker that reflects differences between people."
"This is very interesting. It shows that some aspects of personality have a genetic base and to identify them in the eye in this fascinating way is significant", said Dr George Fieldman, principal lecturer in psychology at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College. "It is surprising that this is possible. But it seems that the old aphorism that 'the eyes are the window to the soul' has some genetic basis."
In the future, security services could employ iris analysis for predicting people's behavior.
Some airports are already probing iris scanning to identify passengers. "Security services would have to use such technologies with some caution. You would not want to arrest somebody on the basis of their iris." added Fieldman.