German stereotype furthered by German policy
From the AP article:
BERLIN – Germans were ordered Thursday to stay serious when having their photographs taken for new passports, wiping away any grins, smirks or smiles so that biometric scanners can pick up their facial features.
Interior Minister Otto Schily ordered passport authorities to only accept pictures taken from the front showing the “most neutral facial expression possible,” starting Nov. 1.
bluegrass girl Said,
September 16, 2005 @ 2:40 pm
This cracks me up. Now passport photo takers will have to be well acquainted with flat affect.
There is a group of German personality psychologists who have been using laboratory tasks to observe personality traits in adult twins. The best part about reading their work is imagining stolid Germans (wearing olive green and mustard yellow) completing the following tasks: (1) tell a joke; (2) read newspaper headlines out loud; (3) place a pretend phone call to your neighbor, asking them to turn down their loud radio; and (4) silently pantomine as many uses for a brick as possible.
Boxen Said,
September 16, 2005 @ 3:04 pm
I wonder if there is an inverse relationship between sense of humor and military aggression.
bluegrass girl Said,
September 16, 2005 @ 3:14 pm
Well, there is an association between right wing authoritarianism and low values of the personality trait of openness to experience (the last of the Big 5 personality traits). Kinda gets at that traditionalist, rigid pattern.
In terms of humor and military aggression, I think it would depend on what kind of humor one considered. It seems a lot of humor essentially derives from hatefulness and a sense of superiority to others, which I’m guessing aren’t unrelated to military aggression.
danger Said,
September 16, 2005 @ 4:01 pm
“Now passport photo takers will have to be well acquainted with flat affect.”
I think they’re pretty well acquainted already. When was the last time you met a cheerful, gregarious passport photo taker?
danger Said,
September 16, 2005 @ 4:05 pm
“there is an association between right wing authoritarianism and low values of the personality trait of openness to experience”
Not sure I need a study to tell me that… If you’re authoritarian, then by definition you won’t value the trait of openness to experience. Which I guess explains why there are no homosexual republicans.
Boxen Said,
September 18, 2005 @ 2:13 am
There are… the Log Cabin Republicans. Maybe what you meant was, “there shouldn’t be any homosexual republicans.” Whenever I read about them, I always think of that Chapelle sketch where to boost membership the Klan allows gays.