Phrenology is the long-discredited theory that head-shapes and
“bumps” in the skull determine your personality and abilities.
From the research summarized below, however, it seems that the
phrenologists may have been onto something. Skulls may not be a
reliable guide to much but brain differentiation may be. Most
past studies of genetic influences on personality have found
that the personality traits studied do in fact show substantial
genetic heritability. And Even your political attitudes have
been shown to have a substantial genetic basis. So the findings
below are not inherently surprising. But I think that most of us
have assumed that the brain differences involved are more subtle
that what is reported below. As someone with long research
involvement in the field of personality measurement, the major
reservation I have is that the way personality is “chopped up”
in the study below is rather arbitrary. The five factor model is
certainly widely used but so is Eysenck’s three factor model and
Cattell’s 16 f