Personality traits are really related to the time of year when we were born.
From time immemorial, people have been looking for a special meaning in exactly when a person was born: they paid attention to signs, made horoscopes, came up with signs. Perhaps they were not so far from the truth.
A study by Hungarian psychologists* established a connection between the season of birth and temperamental characteristics, as well as the risks of developing certain affective disorders, that is, mood disorders.
Xénia Gonda of Semmelweis University in Budapest, said earlier biochemical studies have already linked birth season to levels of neurotransmitter hormones that affect mood, such as serotonin and dopamine, and the link continues into adulthood. Hence the logical idea to go further and compare the birth season directly with personal characteristics, which was done in relation to 400 people.
It turned out the following. Cyclothymics, that is, people who are distinguished by frequent and rapid mood swings from sadness to merriment, are much more numerous among those born in summer than among those born in winter. Hyperthymics, that is, people who are “excessively” cheerful and optimistic, are more often born in spring and summer. Those born in winter are less prone to irritability than others. Finally, those who celebrate their birthday in the fall are less likely to suffer from depression than those who blow out the candles on their birthday cake in the winter.
Of course, the identified predispositions are not a sentence, but only one of the countless factors that affect the structure of the personality and susceptibility to certain psychological problems. “So far, we cannot say anything about the mechanisms that determine these patterns. Now we are looking for genetic markers associated with both the season of birth and personality disorders, ”explains Gonda.
The work of Gonda and her colleagues was presented at a congress of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology in Berlin. Commenting on their results, Professor Eduard Vieta from Barcelona stated: “Temperament is not a disorder, it is a collection of biologically determined behavioral and emotional trends. Both genetic and environmental factors are involved in the formation of temperament, and now we know that the season in which a person was born also plays a role. Particularly intriguing to me seems to be the discovery of a tendency to good mood, that is, a hyperthymic temperament, in those born in the summer.
* alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=146337&CultureCode=en