venta | And these little things define you forever, forever

I always enjoy hearing about beliefs which are pervasive in cultures, but not in mine. And I'm always interested in medical problems that afflict specific cultures[*]. So yesterday I was delighted when ao_lai told me that in Japan your personality is determined by your blood type.

Apparently this belief about blood types is true to the extent that it causes real discrimination, which is less delightful, and its origins actually seem to be not-even-very-thinly disguised racism. Employers are not supposed to ask your blood type at interview, but it's likely you'll want to check the blood type of a potential partner to be sure you're compatible.

While being pretty certain I don't believe it in the slightest, I naturally wanted to know what my blood type says about me. (How many of you actually know your blood type? I know because I'm a blood donor, but other than that wouldn't have any idea - I'm guessing only donors or people who have/had medical issues where it's become relevant know as a rule.)

I can't find the exact page Ao_Lai was reading from, but he listed my finer points as responsible, reliable, sensible, mature... Sitting in my office (in an XKCD hoodie and a Zombie Attack Response Team t-shirt[**]) I felt mature and sensible wasn't really something I could lay claim to. I'd like to be reliable and responsible, and all the other calm, thorough, i-dotting and t-crossing qualities my type A blood implies, but fear I'm not.

On the plus side, I didn't really feel like I had the negative qualities either. So I'm comfortable in my belief that trying to divide humanity into four personality types based solely on genetics doesn't really work.

Given that it is a comparatively recent theory, the idea that you can predict personality by blood type seems surprisingly entrenched. I am, by the way, getting my info from Wikipedia, so anyone who knows more is welcome to weigh in. Apparently most anime characters' blood types are known, and your type is a regular option in character customisation in Japanese games.

It's just weird... By only because I haven't grown up with it.

[*] Not as in wow, isn't it great we don't have Ebola in the UK. More along the lines of fan death... Did you know it is fatal to sleep with an electric fan on in your bedroom... if you're South Korean. I'm sure there are equally odd things I believe that would make a Korean grin.

[**] Yes, I have mentioned in the past that I'm trying to dress more professionally when at work. Wednesdays I go to the Oxford office, and onebyone, zandev and Ao_Lai have all known me far too long to fall for any number of nicely-ironed shirts.

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Wikipedia says I am 'earnest' at best, 'stubborn' and 'fastidious' at worst, which are all rather charming terms and, funnily enough, not too far off the characteristics for my star sign.

I learned yesterday, during a conversation about blood donation (which I did yesterday, coincidentally), that a bubble of air in an injection won't actually kill you. Phew.

Well, that's a perfectly good whodunnit spoiled :)

I think a lot of air still could, but it's not the 'tiny bubble of death moving inexorably towards the heart' I thought it was.

If it's injected into a vein rather than an artery it needs to be a huge bubble (basically a ventricle-ful) to cause trouble cos it'll end up in the lungs after that, which is not a huge worry. If it's in an artery then you have to hope it ends up in the leg or something, not in the brain, where it can cause more problems.

This came up in conversation the other day, since it's why there are emojis for all the blood types. It's such an interesting thing - makes you wonder what pervasive but totally bollocks assumptions exist in our society.

The best I've come up with so far is "don't drink anything, ever, when pregnant". But I think that's a lot further away from bollocks, because excessive drinking really is bad.

I guess we can't see the bollocks for the cultural norms :)

The "anything, ever" part does make that bollocks though. Pretty much everything ingested in excess is bad for you, pregnant or not. :)

I wonder if it comes under the category of things like astrology here, that people tend not to take seriously but still pay attention to. Hurrah for cognitive dissonance.

"Picking your nose and eating it is unhealthy" - apparently it isn't*. But it's still ingrained in most adults [Wikipedia says "most cultures" but doesn't mention which ones are excepted!] that we shouldn't do it, that it's "disgusting" and in some nebulous way bad for us.

* You can physically damage your nose doing it, but it has no negative effects on general health otherwise. We swallow most of our snot anyway so adding a bit more makes little difference. :)

Ooh, good one! Although watching someone do it does make me feel queasy.

Another is, I think, not swimming for an hour after you've eaten. Some hardcore swimmers don't, but that's no different from any other hardcore athlete. And endurance swimmers eat while they're swimming! There's no evidence that swimming after lunch makes cramp more of a risk, or that digestion diverts bloodflow to a dangerous extent, or any of the other things one gets told as a kid.

Edited 2015-09-24 12:43 (UTC)

I didn't know that about cramp. I try not to eat immediately before going running, but that's more because it feels odd.

Yes, this one has been much on my mind, as I would find it hard to schedule my swimming if I had to avoid the post-lunch period!

As you and I and the Dad are all the same blood group and are totally different personalities, that's that theory short to hell.

Given that you and Dead are the same type, I think it'd be frankly suspicious if I were different. Though I'm a little hazy with the actual genetics, it might be one of those recessive wossnames.

Other than by logic, did you know my blood group when I was a kid? I don't know if it's usual to test.

Stupid thing. Me, obviously.

Also I mean Dad! Stupid phone text input thingies.

I think we might have known your blood group from when you had your foot op aged seven. Grandad was the same group, too, but my mother was Rh neg so UH must be too or he'd have been dead (pre blood exchanges, our generation).

Shot (operator finger trouble)

I am an O+ and I know this because I am a donor.
http://www.japanvisitor.com/japanese-culture/culture-blood-types seems to have a handy summary for us. Sounds like you might be an A, assuming there is any consistency between lists.
I haven't seen anything about this Japanese superstition that says anything about the Rhesus factor, positive or negative.

When it comes to Asian oddities, my favourite is Korean fan death.

Sounds like you might be an A

...based purely on me saying in the original post that I was type A ;)

Goodness me, so you did!

But I was basing it on "responsible, reliable, sensible, mature" as a match to what my page on A said.

ISTR reading something once to the effect that there was actually a slight correlation between blood type and the corresponding personality type in Japan, attributed to the concept being so pervasive in the culture that people ended up attempting to live up to the stereotype...

I certainly know at least one person in the UK who blames their quite-appropriate-for-their-star-sign qualities on being told when they were small that such things were appropriate :)

Technically the *exact* page I was reading from was from TVTropes, since that was where I remembered there being an easily-searchable-for page about it... But it does link to and claims to summarise the Wikipedia page, which has more or less the same text in the sidebar.

(Not that TVTropes isn't a completely accurate and reliable reference source for everything, of course, because obviously it is.)

I've heard about it from

ao_lai too. A little scary...

And these little things define you forever, forever

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