Are You A Head Person Or A Heart Person?
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We are often caught in the battle between our heart and our brain, isn’t it? We cannot live without either of these, but at times we wish that we didn’t have to bear the cacophony of two equally assertive and well-meaning organs of our body. The brain is known to be very practical; dealing with emotions is not the brain’s job, whereas the heart is full of emotions and thinking from a practical perspective is out of syllabus for the heart. Often, when we are passionate about pursuing something that we haven’t for years, our friends or family would advise us to follow our heart, the underlying meaning being to let those strong emotions take over yourself. But if we are investing a large sum of money into a stupid business idea or a glib-talking investment firm, the same people would encourage us to ‘think from the head’ and that means the brain is the throne where sense sits unperturbed.
Some people we meet come across as very practical, laid back on the emotional front, and a lot more stress-free as they do not just call a spade a spade, but even think that way. But some people we meet are so caught up in their web of emotions that it is hard for them to detangle themselves. When we meet new people, we often wish to know more about them. Often, we end up asking them commonly asked questions such as “Are you an extrovert or an introvert?” Or you might ask the person “Are you an indoor person or an outdoor person?” But according to an upcoming research, scientists suggest us to ask people where their ‘true self’ is located. Is it in their brain or in their heart? Interestingly, the answer to this question can help us learn volumes about that person!
Located In The Heart Or In The Head
There are mainly two kinds of thinkers, the ones who think from their heart and the ones who think from their head. Most women are high on emotions, while men are pragmatic. To unearth the truth behind the head over heart theory, researchers Adam Fetterman and Michael Robinson found some interesting answers that revealed the personality traits of undergraduate students from the North Dakota State University (1). Their aim was to decipher whether the students think from their heart or from their head and they did this via questionnaires, which spoke volumes about the nature of the students examined. The right question to ask someone you would like to know better is to ask them whether their true self resides in their head or in their heart. Certain studies reveal that by finding an answer to this question can also unravel a person’s perspective on political subjects as well as the kind of causes they support (2).
More Love For The Heart Or For The Brain?
According to a recent study published in the Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, just where people find their true self in has major implications on their views even on issues such as abortion laws and identifying the right criterion to declare a person dead (3). In a survey involving hundreds of Indians and Americans, conducted online by Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and led by Adam Galinsky from Columbia Business School, people were given a hypothetical situation wherein they would be passing an astronomical amount of money to people who received their organs after their death. The highest sum of money that most participants thought they would donate would be to people who received their brain and the second highest went to the person who received their heart. Men in the survey were clearly head-locators and found their true essence in their brains, while most women in the survey were heart-locators and they identified the heart to be home to their real self.
How Do You Identify A Head Person Or Heart Person?
According to experts, most heart persons are emotional and give top priority to their relationships. They depend on emotions to make decisions and are stressed when the going isn’t good. Interestingly, they support charities that are related to the heart and they love community living. The head persons are a stark contrast but an equally interesting bunch of people. These folks support charities related to brain diseases, think more ‘rationally,’ get better grades in school, and have a higher degree of general knowledge.
If you have been thinking lately about meeting that guy again over a cup of coffee to take things a step ahead, make sure you ask him the contemporary question as to where he thinks is his true self. It would be good to do your homework by probing deeper into yourself and figuring out as to what type of a person you are as well. If his self and yours live in the same place, then that is great. But if his self is in the heart and yours is in the head (I am sure you are a woman who beats the gender stereotypes), we have heard opposites attract, haven’t we?
