3 Discoveries Shine Light on Whether Our Eyes are Windows to the Soul

We still don't have a definitive answer, but these discoveries inch us closer to one

Hiya!

Ya know, no one really needs science to tell us that eye contact is powerful. Anyone who has attempted to flirt or has sought the Truth from someone knows the power eye contact yields. There’s a whole list of reasons everyone, not just poets, view eyes as the windows to our souls — and romance is only one of them.

Evolutionarily speaking, we’re only one of countless species that use eye contact to communicate. In fact, we can have entire conversations without a single word spoken.

The simplest explanation for why Humans started using eye contact to communicate is for hunting without scaring the prey, along with mating purposes. Now, technology has finally advanced enough for scientists to try and figure out how eye contact influences us so much. Today, I’m going to tell you about three of them.

Potential Links Between Iris Patterns and Adult Personalities

I’m starting with my favorite one because, well, I want to. Not that the other two aren’t awesome too. They are, and you should totally read about them. But I found this one particularly interesting.

See, there’s plenty on the internet claiming links between eye color and personality traits — but, in my opinion, the evidence is pretty flimsy and contradictory. Personally, I don’t think eye color influences our personalities any more than our hair color or height. Besides, the majority of Humans worldwide have brown eyes, so I find it doubtful that all brown-eyed people have similar personalities.

But this study by a team of Swedish researchers published by Biological Psychology suggests it’s not the color but the pattern of our iris that holds the clue. The team from Orebro University in Stockholm, Sweden, led by behavioral scientist Matt Larsson, analyzed the eyes of over 400 participants, then categorized them by iris patterns and compared them to previously gathered data about each participant’s personality.

Specifically, they focused on the patterns within the contraction furrow – the curving lines bordering the edge of an iris – and the crypts – the thread-like lines radiating out from the pupils.

But first, the researchers used a system known as NEO PI-R to assess the participants’ personalities. The subjects completed a standard questionnaire that measured their attitudinal, motivational, emotional, experiential, and interpersonal styles and produced a detailed personality description.

In the end, the results indicated that people with densely packed crypts were associated with five “approach-related behaviors,” including positive emotions, tenderminded, more trustworthy, and warmer. (The fifth was “feelings,” but the study didn’t specify what the researchers meant by that.) They also found that people with more contraction furrows were generally more impulsive. In an article about the study, Matt Larsson says,

“Our results suggest people with different iris features tend to develop along different personality lines, [and that, d]ifferences in the iris can be used as a biomarker that reflects differences between people.”

Unlike the correlation between personality traits and eye color, Larsson and his team have a reasonable argument for why some personality traits could be linked to iris patterns – and it all has to do with a little-bitty gene called PAX6.