Society and Culture
A popular belief in Japan is that a person's ABO blood type is predictive of their personality, character, and compatibility with others. This belief is also widespread elsewhere in Asia, notably Taiwan and South Korea. Deriving from ideas of historical scientific racism, the theory reached Japan in a 1927 psychologist's report, and the militarist government of the time commissioned a study aimed at breeding better soldiers. The fad faded in the 1930s due to its lack of scientific basis and ultimately the discovery of DNA in the following decades which it later became clear had a vastly more complex and important role in both heredity generally and personality specifically. No evidence has been found to support the theory by scientists, but it was revived in the 1970s by Masahiko Nomi, a broadcaster with a background in law who had no scientific or medical background. Despite these facts, the myth still persists widely in Japanese popular culture.
Read more about this topic: Blood Type
Famous quotes containing the words society and/or culture:
“Let him be great, and love shall follow him. Nothing is more deeply punished than the neglect of the affinities by which alone society should be formed, and the insane levity of choosing associates by others eyes.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“... weve allowed a youth-centered culture to leave us so estranged from our future selves that, when asked about the years beyond fifty, sixty, or seventyall part of the average human life span providing we can escape hunger, violence, and other epidemicsmany people can see only a blank screen, or one on which they project fear of disease and democracy.”
—Gloria Steinem (b. 1934)