We all are aware of how our personality traits affect the way we think, feel and act.However, nowadays recent studies suggest the idea that our perception of the world may also depend on our personality traits.

Conscientiousness, neuroticism, extroversion, agreeableness, and the ability to keep an open mind to new experiences are the categories of the big five personality. In other words, one of those categories are somehow more dominant on us, and we perceive the world according to the category we possess.

A recent study focused on the ability to keep an open mind to new experiences, and they found that open-minded people perceive the world differently.

They examined a visual perception phenomenon called “binocular rivalry.” This phenomenon occurs when each eye is shown a different image, in this case, a red patch in one eye and a green patch to another. Most people switch back and forwards between the two incompatible images, as the brain can only perceive one at a time. But some people merge the two images into a unified red-green patch. Most participants who looked at both patches together were the ones who scored higher on openness! 

This makes sense, according to the researchers, because openness to new experiences is linked with creativity. Because these people are fine with keeping their mind open to experiences, learning, and perception, they easily create new mental routes inside their head. Therefore, they develop new ideas by connecting things a normal person would not. This finding had been mentioned in an old study from 2015 as well. Open mindedness, therefore, helps individuals attain higher planes of thought and a calmer resting state. It literally creates a different structure of reality by introducing new elements inside the picture normal people would not perceive. It broadens the world an individual lives in.

References: Enlightened Consciousness, Science Direct

Featured Image: Pixabay