The word 'personality' comes from the Latin persona, meaning mask. In ancient plays masks were used as plot devices to typify, not disguise, the character. We still use such tropes though we have moved away from simplistic ideas of appearance reflecting character to more sophisticated epistemological territories involving empiricism and brain scans. Nowadays if you suggested that someone was more likely to drink Riesling than Pinot Grigio because of the shape of their head you would, rightly, be seen as superstitious rather than scientific. But psychologists working in the field of personality still search for patterns in the thoughts and behaviours of individuals.
...Subscribe HERE to Fine Wine magazine to read the rest of this content or log yourself in if you are already a member. The idea that personality and wine are linked is an attractive one. We might like to think Merlot fans masochistic or Pinot Noir geeks obsessive-compulsive, but there is little empirical evidence to support people fitting such convenient stereotypes. On the contrary, there is a growing acknowledgement that personality is as fluid and mercurial as wine once we get beyond basic traits related to our genetic inheritance.
The word 'personality' comes from the Latin persona, meaning mask. In ancient plays masks were used as plot devices to typify, not disguise, the character. We still use such tropes though we have moved away from simplistic ideas of appearance reflecting character to more sophisticated epistemological territories involving empiricism and brain scans. Nowadays if you suggested that someone was more likely to drink Riesling than Pinot Grigio because of the shape of their head you would, rightly, be seen as superstitious rather than scientific. But psychologists working in the field of personality still search for patterns in the thoughts and behaviours of individuals.
...Upgrade HERE to Fine Wine magazine to read the rest of this content or log yourself in if you are already a member.
