Asahi Sunday Edition Begrudgingly Admits Blood Type Personality Assessment is Bunk

In the Asahi Shimbun in September there was a story as part of the series “[Answers to Questions that you] Can’t Ask Anymore” which offers explanations of complicated things that most people assume everybody understands, such as coral reefs.

On blood types:

“There is a strong tendency in Japan to associate personality traits and ABO blood types, but what are blood types?”

[Explanation of how blood types work omitted. Check Wikipedia if you must know.]

“So, back to [blood types’] relation to people’s personalities: ‘There is no research reported that would form the scientific basis for that,’ [explains the Tokyo University Legal Medicine Asst. Professor quoted for the article]. This is also the general opinion of the scientific community.”

GOTCHA!

A first step in deconstructing the myth and setting Japanese people on the path to rational thinking? Not bloody likely. Still, it’s good to see some public admission that it’s bunch of rubbish, even if it’s only buried at the end of a Sunday magazine article.

8 thoughts on “Asahi Sunday Edition Begrudgingly Admits Blood Type Personality Assessment is Bunk”

  1. This blood type crap is also pretty popular here in Taiwan, one of the more pathetic legacies of their colonial history.

    Do you think people would be less likely to believe in the blood type thing if they knew it had been started by a Nazi?

  2. blood type fortune telling . . . about as rational as believing your future is determined by the day of the year you were born.

  3. I had an in-depth conversation over this very topic at a party 10 days ago. I basically asserted what you’re saying: there is no rational basis to believe that blood type has any connection to personality types. And this guy I was talking with simply said, “but we Japanese LIKE that irrationality!”

  4. Actually, the Japanese are more advanced and forward thinking on this. I challenge anyone in the scientific community or anyone to take me on this one that there’s validity and science to the Blood Type, personality. I’ve posted my research at the above web site that there is a correlation between how you use your mind and your Blood Type. Prove my wrong by:
    1. Take my survey
    2. Get your Blood Type result.
    3. Match BOTH result with the “Human Mind Perioidc Table” that I discovered.

    You will see who are more irrational – us or them!

    Bob Afamasaga
    Author and Researcher

  5. I recommend people take a look at this guy’s book, most of which is on his sit for free. I was especially amused by how he go an ‘“Original Source Energy” or “Supreme Creator” or “Infinite Intelligence” caused ALL and EVERY SINGLE energy or mass to become or come in to existence with its own unique processes and purposes.’ from Einstein’s famous E=MC2.

    The same chapter goes on to say “How about the “Pet Rock” phenomena?” I thought back then that everyone was crazy to be conned in such a scammed [sic]. But then I read stories about how some peoples [sic] Rocks have a life of its [sic] own, responding to the care and love of its owner. Wow! What do all of these have in common? Energy vibrating in the same frequency.” Yep, here we go with “vibrations” of energy, the favourite word of the pseudoscientists stolen from quantum physics. He then goes on to say that energy is love.

    Here’s a true classic: “What is MONEY made out of? Money is made of paper which is mass or matter. Therefore since paper is mass or matter, its energy. Energy is LOVE and LOVE is energy. Others will say that money is just an idea or thought. What is thought? Thought is energy! Did you know that everything that man made or design existed in someone’s head as a thought and in time was converted in to matter or mass?” Right….So to make more money, which is matter which is energy which is love, I should think about it, thus creating energy and thus matter and money. Who needs to work? I mean, it’s like making a chair or a building – just converting love into matter, right? I guess the fact that most people need to work damn hard to both make money and buildings just proves they don’t love enough, but people who seem to be rich without doing anything (like Paris Hilton) are just so full of love.

    Here are the lifestyle tips for Type A Blood:
    “here are some key lifestyle strategies for Type A individuals.
    • Cultivate creativity and expression in your life
    • Establish a consistent daily schedule
    • Go to bed no later than 11:00 PM and sleep for eight hours or more. Don’t linger in bed, as soon as you get up, get going!
    • Take at least two breaks of twenty minutes each during the work day. Stretch, take a walk, do deep breathing exercises or meditate.
    • Don’t skip meals
    • Eat more protein at the start of the day, less at the end
    • Don’t eat when you are anxious
    • Eat smaller, more frequent meals.
    • Engage in thirty to forty five minutes of calming exercise at least three times a week.
    • Plan regular screening for heart disease and cancer prevention.
    • Always chew food thoroughly to enhance digestion. Low stomach acid makes digestion more difficult”
    Well, I assume those who are Type O or B or AB can either skip these or do the exact opposite. After all, each blood type is different, of course. He has other lifestyle tips for the other blood types, and naturally (and much like horoscopes) any one of them could be applied by any blood type. While there are a few incidents of blood type affecting health (eg stomach ulcers caused by helicobacter pylori, a bacterium which has a special affinity for one of the unique type O proteins) the correlation is weak.

    There’s a reason why some of us self-publish our academic (ahem) work on the net, and some of us publish in peer-reviewed journals….

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