An empirical study of Personality and Blood group type in Indian context

 

Dr. Meha Joshi¹, Sohail Bakshi², Shreya Bansal³

¹Assistant Professor, DSM, DTU

^2,3Student, DTU

 

ABSTRACT:

It has been established by Myers and Briggs that there exist 16 different types of personalities and every individual belongs to one such category. The personality types proposed by these behavioral scientists enlist the characteristics associated with each of them. It is also known that each individual has his own blood group type. This research was carried out to determine that whether there exists any relationship between blood group type of individuals and their personality type among people of diverse age groups and backgrounds. A sample of 133 people belonging to different age groups and backgrounds was selected using stratified random sampling technique and Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), an introspective self-report standard questionnaire designed to indicate psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions, was used to identify the personality type of the people under study. The relationship among the personality type and blood group level of individuals was studied using Pearson’s chi-square formula. The results showed that there are no significant correlations between the blood and self-reported personality, in terms of personality aspects of blood types A, B and O.

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

Every individual possesses a particular type of personality. Personality traits determine how individuals act in a particular situation. The genotypes and phenotypes of an individual help the researchers to identify the blood group an individual might possess.  Phenotype basically means the expression of genes, expression which can be in the terms of A, B, AB and O. Thus, phenotype consists of all the hereditary information. Whereas genotype basically consists of an organism’s observed properties such as morphology, development or behavior.

 

Various scholars have devised different psychometric tests to determine the type of personality an individual possesses.

 

According to Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) there are sixteen permutations and combinations to various types of personality, they are as follows: ISTJ, ISFJ, INFJ, INTJ, ISTP, ISFP, INFP, INTP, ESTP, ESFP, ENFP, ENTP, ESTJ, ESFJ, ENFJ, and ENTJ. According to Myers-Briggs Type Indicator an individual might be Introversion (I) or Extraversion, Intuition (N) or Sensing (S), Thinking (T) or Feeling (F), Judging (J) or Perceiving (P) and the above mentioned personality types are the combinations of the same.

 

REVIEW OF LITERATURE:

There is an evidence of plethora of research demonstrating the relation between personality type and blood group of an individual. Jogawar in his first research (based on Frovave 1927) said that human blood group is the highest priority determinant of people’s temperament. He found that people with blood type B are less emotionally stable and less self-sufficient. People with blood type O are aggressive, advancing, and positive while people with blood types A, AB are conservative, defensive and negative. In another study (Thompson 1936), no relationship was found between blood type and personality. The existence of self-fulfilling prophecy(due to positive feedback between the behavior and the belief it is found to be directly or indirectly true) was examined and supported in various fields (Social Psychology, Jones 1977; Snyder 1984, 1992), educational psychology, clinical psychology, personality psychology, psychological methodology, sociology, political science and economics. The self-fulfilling prophecy states that the fundamental differences in abilities between people in minority and majority social groups are because of social stereotype (Blanchard & Crosby 1989; wood 1989).A survey was conducted for the people of the age group from 13 to 59 years and the subjects were selected from the population of Japanese people through random sampling method. In the surveys from 1978-1988 the respondents were asked to answer a survey of 24 yes-no type questions to access their personality type. During this span of ten years the relationship was found out between the personality type and blood group and the personalities have conformed to the stereotypes of their blood groups. This is because a lot was published about the stereotypes before this period and people responded based on their stereotypes.   In Japan many people believe that blood types cause people to have distinct personality. According to (cf. Takuma & Sato 1994) blood type A individuals are serious and scrupulous, blood type B people are uncooperative and cheerful, blood type AB are the people of dual personality and blood type O are careless and broadminded. A survey in Japan was conducted using random sampling method and 75% of the respondents believed that there is a correlation between the personality and the blood type. The assignment of task to the employees is based on the blood group because the abilities are judged on that. The study of blood types and blood traits has been studied both by the mainstream scientists as well as the pseudoscientific groups. The belief that led to the propaganda of racism and pseudoscience was the Nazi belief that considered type B people to be of lower instincts which they thought are present in the Jews and Asian people (www.Japantoday.com)

 

From 1960 till 1970 more sophisticated instruments for assessing the relationship have been developed such as sixteen personality factors (Cattell, Eber and Tatsuoka 1970), Eysenck personality inventory (Eysenck and Eysenck 1964). Widely accepted five factor models was used in two recent studies (Cramer and Imaike 2002, Rogers and Glendon, 2003) and it was found out that no significant relationship exists between blood groups and personalities. Personality traits according to a study are considered to be life-long and according to Costa and McCrae, 1992 andJang, Livesley and Vermon 1996 variation caused due to genes is approximately 40%. There exists a relationship between blood group and different diseases and according to clinical studies there is a relation between psychological disorders and blood type. Since 1960s and 1970s psychologists have studied neuroticism and extraversion in relation to the blood types.  Higher neuroticism scores are present among type B persons. (Angst and Maurer-Groeli 1974, Gupta 1990)

 

Studies show conflicting results. Somewhat consistent findings are of type A and for the neurotics score of the type B(DeMikusinski and Omar De Urteager  1983) showed that gender played role as while blood type O females are extraverted, also blood type O males tend to be introverted otherwise general traits are that they are active ,optimistic, sociable. No consistency was there in the findings for blood type AB. Blood type is genetically predetermined and is identified easily so it has been used in many countries as a biological maker like in Greece, India, Australia, Italy, Japan, and USA.

 

In India many undergraduate students near about 600, showed their blood types and filled 16 personality forms. Blood type B came out to be the most emotionally unstable (Jogawar 1983).  Postgraduate students were asked to complete both the EPQ and type ‘A’behavior self-rating inventory. No relation was found among type ‘A’ personality with blood group but type ‘B’ respondents were found to have significantly high neuroticism score. The human blood groups also determine the somatic traits of an individual which are free of the environmental modifications. Cross validating studies have been done and 25 different factors were found out which had no effect of culture and age and these factors effects the personality measures and the criterion performance such as success on the professional fronts, school achievements (Cattell, Pichot and Rennes, 1961), (Rinieris et al, 1980) reported his findings that obsessive-compulsive disorder is linked with the type A.

 

There were two chief issues with the studies done. The first issue was that the studies were done without any prior hypothesis and any significant difference was taken into consideration. Second is that the personality measures have been taken as both specific like MMPI depression and general such as 16 PF, EPQ.

 

Table 1

Year	Researcher(s)	Finding(s)
1927	Furukawa	Blood type B was found to be active
1930	Furukawa	Blood type B was associated with be cheerful, sociable, frank, light hearted, attentive, and quick. Whereas AB blood group showed contradicting results
1961	Catell, Pichot and Rennes	Identified 25 factors and these factors account for substantial part of variance of any random set of personality measures/criterion performance
1962	Cohen and Thomas	Blood type B and AB have love somatic traits(Source)
1974	Angst and Maurer Groeli	Higher neuroticism scores amongst blood type B
	Maurer Groeli	Blood type A were more emotionally vulnerable whereas blood type AB were aggressive, open and extraverted
1982	Eysenck	Higher extraversion score amongst blood type AB
1983	Jogawar	Blood type B were more emotionally unstable than blood type and O
1984	Jogawar	Higher neuroticism scores amongst blood type B
1987	Lester and Gatto	Blood type B to be introverted, whereas blood type Oand AB showed high extraversion scores and blood type A showed high introversion scores
1989	Blanchard and Crosby	Self-fulfilling prophecy of social stereotypes causes people to behave according to the stereotypes
1990	Gupta and MaruthamPrakash	Higher neuroticism scores amongst blood type B
1992	Neuman, ShoafHarvill	Blood type A felt more depression, showed anger traits, showed anxiety traits whereas blood type O showed lower neuroticism scores
1997	Costa and McCrae	Personality traits are considered lifelong
2001	D'Adamo and Whitney	Blood type O- extraverted, A-introverted, B-independent and AB-intuitive

 

Table 2

Year	Researcher(s)	Common Finding(s)
1930	Furukawa	Blood type can be used as biological markers to assess influence of genetic factors on personality. High neuroticism scores amongst type B, higher psychoticism amongst B and AB
1964	Cattel, Boutourline and Hundleby
1980	Rinieris, Christodoulous and Stefanis
1983	Jogawar
1987	Lester and Gatto
1990	Gupta and  MaruthamPrakash
2002	Cramer and Imaike
2003	Rogers and Glendon

 

 

 

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

This research aims to identify and understand the relationship, if any, between the personality of an individual and their blood groups. In the past, various studies have been conducted to establish this linkage . Taking those studies as base, the study aims at finding the linkage between blood group types and personality types in the Indian context and then to provide recommendations accordingly. Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was used to find out the personality of the respondents.

 

OBJECTIVES:

1.        To study that whether there is any correlation between personality types of an individual and their blood groups with respect to introversion and extraversion aspects

2.        To study that whether there is any correlation between personality types of an individual and their blood groups with respect to Intituions and sensing

3.        To study that whether there is any correlation between personality types of an individual and their blood groups with respect to feeling and thinking

4.        To study that whether there is any correlation between personality types of an individual and their blood groups with respect to perceiving and judging aspects

 

HYPOTHESES OF THE STUDY:

The hypotheses formulated for this research are as follows

H_o1: Blood Groups have no significant relation with Introvert or Extrovert personality.

 

H_o2: Blood Groups have no significant relation with Intuition or Sensing personality.

 

H_o3: Blood Groups have no significant relation with Feeling or Thinking personality.

 

H_o4: Blood Groups have no significant relation with Perceiving or Judging personality.

 

SUBJECTS AND METHODS:

In total about 200 questionnaires were floated and to which about 137 individuals responded. The respondents belonged to varied age groups.  Out of the 137, 4 were rejected due to inadequate entry. So the total data collected was for 133 individuals.

 

 

 

Table 3

 

 

 

The questionnaire consisted of sixty questions and was based on Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Various questions which might bring out the personality of an individual were asked. In addition to this blood group of the respondent was also recorded to conduct the research further.

 

DATA ANALYSIS:

The average age of respondents was coming out to be 24 years with minimum age amongst the respondent being 12 years and the maximum age being 63 years. 73% of the respondents had age greater than 20 years, whereas, 27% of the respondents had age less than or equal to 20 years.

 

The variables were identified to be of nominal data. And thus Chi-Square test for independence was done on the collected data with a significance value of 0.05.For the analysis the software used was SPSS 20. The data thus collected was sorted as Introvert vs. Extrovert, Intuition vs. Sensing, Feeling vs. Thinking and Perceiving vs. Judging. All these personalities were then checked for independence with the respective blood groups received. The following are the tabulations obtained after running Chi-Square Test for independence on the sorted data:

 

Fig. Age variation amongst 133 Respondents

 

 

1) CHI-SQUARE TEST TO DETERMINE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTROVERT OR EXTROVERT PERSONALITY AND BLOOD GROUPS

Table 4.1

 

 

Chi-square test was run on the personality traits and blood groups. The personality traits i.e. introvert or Extrovert and the blood groups A, AB, B and O were analyzed. The significance value thus obtained after running the Chi-Square test was found to be 0.327. Since, the value of significance obtained from the Chi-Square Test is greater than 0.05, so, we will accept the null hypothesis “H_o1 : Blood Groups have no significant relation with Introvert or Extrovert personality.”

 

2) CHI-SQUARE TEST TO DETERMINE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTUITION(I) OR SENSING(S) PERSONALITY AND BLOOD GROUPS (A, AB, B and O)

Table 4.2

 

 

 

 

 

Chi-square test was run on the personality traits and blood groups. The personality traits i.e. intuition or sensing and the blood groups A, AB, B and O were analyzed. The significance value thus obtained after running the Chi-Square test was found to be 0.733. Since, the value of significance obtained from the Chi-Square Test is greater than 0.05, so, we will accept the null hypothesis “H_o2 : Blood Groups have no significant relation with Intuition or Sensing personality.”

 

3) CHI-SQUARE TEST TO DETERMINE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FEELING (F) OR THINKING (T) PERSONALITY AND BLOOD GROUPS (A, AB, B and O)

Tables 4.3

Count						Chi-Square Tests
Personality	Blood Groups						Value	df	Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)
Feeling or Thinking	A	AB	B	O	Total	Pearson Chi-Square	2.200a	3	0.532
F	10	8	32	33	83	Likelihood Ratio	2.218	3	0.528
T	6	3	15	26	50	N of Valid Cases	133
Total	16	11	47	59	133

 

 

Chi-square test was run on the personality traits and blood groups. The personality traits i.e. feeling or thinking and the blood groups A, AB, B and O were analyzed. The significance value thus obtained after running the Chi-Square test was found to be 0.733. Since, the value of significance obtained from the Chi-Square Test is greater than 0.05, so, we will accept the null hypothesis “H_o : Blood Groups have no significant relation with Feeling or Thinking personality.”

 

4) CHI-SQUARE TEST TO DETERMINE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERCEIVING (P) OR JUDGING (J) PERSONALITY AND BLOOD GROUPS (A, AB, B and O)

Tables 4.4

Count						Chi-Square Tests
Personality	Blood Groups						Value	df	Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)
Perceiving or Judging	A	AB	B	O	Total	Pearson Chi-Square	1.823a	3	0.61
J	10	7	32	45	94	Likelihood Ratio	1.824	3	0.61
P	6	4	15	14	39	N of Valid Cases	133
Total	16	11	47	59	133

 

 

Chi-square test was run on the personality traits and blood groups. The personality traits i.e. perceiving or judging and the blood groups A, AB, B and O were analyzed. The significance value thus obtained after running the Chi-Square test was found to be 0.733. Since, the value of significance obtained from the Chi-Square Test is greater than 0.05, so, we will accept the null hypothesis “H_o 4: Blood Groups have no significant relation with Perceiving or Judging personality.”

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

After obtaining the tabulations, the p-values were noted and were compared with the assumed significance value. All values were found to be greater than the assumed value (Table 5); hence, the null hypotheses are accepted. Thus, there exists no significant relationship between blood group and personality types in the Indian context.

 

 

Table 5

 

 

RECOMMENDATIONS:

Since, in the Indian context the blood groups have shown no significant relationship with the personality of an individual, here are some recommendations: -

 

1)      Firms coming from different countries to India in order to recruit individuals for various positions should not look for a relationship between blood and personality. Many Japanese firms assess the personality of an individual based on his or her blood group but according to our research this process of selection will not be applicable in the Indian context.

2)      Every person should be accepted and rejected for the job or any work based on their skillset as there was no significant relation of their blood group characteristic with the type of job that they may excel at.

 

REFERENCES:

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2.        Breyer, M. (2014, october 24). What your blood type says about you. Retrieved from mnn.com: ttp://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/stories/what-your-blood-type-says-about-you

3.        Davenport, J. (1998). A philosophical Critique of personality- Type Theory in Pscychology: Esyenck, Myers Briggs and Jung.

4.        Gates, D. (2015, april). Link of blood type, personality and diet. Retrieved from bodyecology.com: ttp://bodyecology.com/articles/link_blood_type_personality_diet.php

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7.        Mary Rogers, A. I. (april 2002). Blood type and personality. Queensland, Australia.

8.        Mohammad Sharif, H. A. The relationship between blood groups and type A personality. Iran: Kurdistan University of medical sciences, Islamic azad inviersity.

9.        Narges aliizadeth, h. A. (March 2013). Personality psychological strategy in the management of productivity. molana university, Iran: RS Publication.

10.     Narkhede, D. P. (june 2015). An empirical study on blood types and personality. Pratibha international journal of science, spirituality, business and technology.

11.     Shoko Tsuchimine, J. S.-F. (may 15, 2015). ABO blood type and personality traits in healthy japenese subjects. journal. pone.

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Accepted on 29.06.2017          © A&V Publications all right reserved