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Yet, with your caffeine example, the brain very quickly acclimates to regular doses of caffeine and returns to a baseline, so I'm not sure what that example rea
by NickM 5y ago
Yet, with your caffeine example, the brain very quickly acclimates to regular doses of caffeine and returns to a baseline, so I'm not sure what that example really proves.
Of course hormones do have effects on the brain, but "chemical X affects our mood, therefore chemicals Y and Z must mean there are huge inherent differences between the genders" feels like a pretty weak argument to me.
- shados 5y agoI think the point was just that your personality is in large part a biological construct influenced by the soup of factors that is your physical body. If we could somehow transfer your "soul" (if there is such a thing) in someone else's body, your personality would likely change. How much? We don't know, but it would be non-zero. It's not just your brain, or your hormones, but also stuff like your guts biome. Even if some of these are temporary and fluctuate, they'll still be part of "who you are". But our general's health, socioeconomic context, influence of discrimination (or privilege), peer and society's pressures, etc, also impact our personalities in big ways, so it's pretty tough to separate one from the other. Heck, even what you eat can change it. If you google around, you'll find how people who eat a lot of trans fat were found to be generally more aggressive.