Inside the Head of an Applicant (1984 A Little Late But Here Now)

Newsweek/MSNBC ^ | 02/19/2005 | Tara Pepper

[drt1]

Feb. 21 issue - Turhan Canli has an odd photo collection. It includes several shots of people's faces. He flashes photos of the words "death," "happiness" and others printed in various colors. He also has images of fanged snakes and snarling dogs, babies and white supremacists. Canli, a psychologist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, recently showed several of the pictures to Robert Sheiman, 22, a theater manager from New Haven, Conn. Before viewing them, Sheiman was put in an fMRI scanner, and as each photo flashed up, he indicated his reaction—positive, negative or neutral—by pressing buttons. The type of image that came up most often was a person's face along with a word. Sometimes the connection between face and word was vaguely comical—such as happy face along with the word "stool"—and at other times disturbing, the person crying and "happiness." After an hour in the scanner, "I came out of it shaking," says Sheiman. "It was overwhelming."

Canli thinks that the way Sheiman and others respond emotionally to these peculiar word-image combinations—and specifically what happens inside their brains—can tell a lot about what kind of people they are. "Certain types of people can't help but notice the emotional meaning of certain words," he says. Neurotic personalities tend to focus on ugly or repellent images, their brains lighting up at pictures of rotting food or mutilated bodies. Extroverts, on the other hand, prefer pleasurable objects, such as sunsets or giggling babies. For years Canli has been putting test subjects like Sheiman under the scanner and cataloging the personality types. "Can you use a brain scan to read personality?" he says. "Of course you can.".....

[drt1]

"Can you use a brain scan to read personality?" he says. "Of course you can."

And some here are wary of a National ID Card? Who needs that when they can read your mind/personality.

[MarkL]

When I was a student at SUNY @ Stony Brook, I always thought that alot of the people there needed their heads examined!

Mark

[Criminal Number 18F]

"I came out of it shaking," says Sheiman.

From this, shaking? What kind of girly man...?

"Robert Sheiman, 22, a theater manager from New Haven

Ah. Never mind.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[FairOpinion]

1984 was an understatement. The technology is here to be much more intrusive.

[FairOpinion]

"Scientists are also exploring the role of genes in setting the range of personality traits a person can develop. "


Of course, from here, compulsory gene design of babies is the next "logical" step -- to make sure there will be the right number of people with the appropriate traits, to fill the future job market.

[drt1]

Give this stuff another ten or twenty years and you won't recognize the workplace. It will be most pronounced in Mid to Upper level jobs but where it is possible to implement, it will be.

Maybe they won't need to design Genes. They will just select out the undesirables, they will starve to death, and the Pool will slowly gravitate to the desired complement. Science imitating nature perhaps. Something right out of Hitler's plans for the Master Race. Scary.

[FairOpinion]

"Something right out of Hitler's plans for the Master Race. Scary."


Yes, it is. Looks like Hitler was merely slightly ahead of his time.