Human behavior and personality is quite mysterious and to understand it, several studies has previously conducted and reported. But a recently held research on making out human behavior and personality has revealed some surprising facts.

A  new study on human behaviour has revealed that 90 percent of us can be classified into just four basic personality types.

The research was carried out by a team of researchers from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and the universities of Barcelona, Rovira i Virgili and Zaragoza, Spain.

The results showed that the majority of the participants — 90 per cent — could be divided into just four basic personality types and are defined as: Optimistic, Pessimistic, Trusting and Envious.

Envious, is the most common, with 30 percent compared to 20 percent for each of the other groups, the study recently published in the journal Science Advances reveals.

The study analysed the responses of 541 volunteers to hundreds of social dilemmas, with options leading to collaboration or conflict with others.

Participants had to make decisions based on individual or group interests, which would lead to either collaboration or conflict with others.

Researchers used the data to develop a computer algorithm which set out to classify people according to their behaviour.

Here’s what they found:

Take, for example, one of the scenarios from the Spanish researcher’s personality experiment (as reported in ScienceDaily): “Two people can hunt deer together, but if they are alone, they can only hunt rabbits.”

Optimists

Those who believe that they and their partner will make the best choice for both of them.

What does the optimist do? The optimist chooses to hunt together, because (theoretically) that becomes a win-win scenario. Way to see the good in people! 20 percent of people are optimists.

Envious

Those who don’t actually mind what they achieve, as long as they’re better than everyone else.

An envious hunter is willing to do whatever it takes to beat other people, even if that means settling for rabbits. So, in this case, she definitely hunts alone. You’d think that people willing to shoot themselves in the foot (rather than cooperate) would be rare, but envious turned out to be the most common personality type according to this research, with 30 percent of people falling into the “envious” category. Kind of explains a lot, doesn’t it?

Pessimists

Those who select the option which they see as the lesser of two evils.

How does the pessimist decide to hunt? The pessimist decides to go it alone, because then she can control that she’ll go home with something, even if it is only the lowly rabbit. She therefore has a low opinion of her prospective hunting buddy and tries to shoot for the lesser of two evils. Another 20 percent of people are pessimists.

Trusting Group

Those who are born collaborators and who will always co-operate. They don’t really mind if they win or lose.

The trusting hunter decides to hunt together, with nary a thought as to what could go wrong. She trusts by default, even if she’s been burned in the past. Again, 20 percent of people fall into this category.

Undefined Group

The remaining ten percent fell into a fifth, undefined group, which the algorithm was unable to classify based on behaviour. The researchers believe this suggests that a wide range of smaller subgroups exists, made up of individuals who do not behave in a determined way to the various situations.

Conclusion:

30% of respondents in the study were identified as ‘envious’ – meaning their main goal was to triumph and be better than others, because they feel uncomfortable is someone else has something they’ve not got.

So which one do you fancy yourself as? Let us know in the comments below. Don’t Forget to Share, sharing is caring!