Myopia and Personality
This study is interesting, but my question is, who thinks of these studies and who funds them? At the University of Melbourne, in 2008, it was reported that, “the commonly held belief that people with myopia (short-sightedness) are introverted and conscientious”. Participants were recruited from the Australian Twin Registry (18-83 years old) and families (11-90 years old) from an eye clinic. Their eyes were examined and the Big Five Factor Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1994) was administered.
The Inventory places people on five basic personality dimensions. The first one is called Negative Emotions, which ranges from reactive to responsive to resilient. The second is called Extravert, sliding from ambivert to introvert. The third is Openness, ranging from curious to interested to closed. The next is Agreeableness beginning at flexible to negotiator to rigid/competitive. The last is Conscientiousness ranging from organized, to balanced to chaotic.
No correlation between introversion and conscientiousness was found. A very slight correlation between myopia and agreeableness was noted. In a second study age and education were included and they found openness was the only significant predictor of myopia. The researchers wondered if the results reflect a stereotype about intelligence rather than introversion. They wondered if openness is an aspect of intellect and perhaps what people are noticing is a correlation between myopia, openness and intelligence.
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