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Is salivary flow related to personality?
K Millar1, D A Geddes, R H Hammersley
1Behavioural Sciences Group, Medical School, University of Glasgow.
Abstract:
Studies conducted in the 1960s proposed that stimulated salivary flow was negatively correlated with the personality trait of introversion-extraversion such that introverted individuals were supposed to salivate more strongly to lemon-juice stimulation than were extraverts. The relationship was re-examined in the present study in light of more recent but inconsistent findings. A sample of 36 male and female volunteers showed no significant relationship between stimulated salivary flow and extraversion. Nor was flow related to State or Trait anxiety according to Spielberger's anxiety inventory, or to CNS activation as assessed by an objective electronic test. It was concluded that there was no evidence to relate stimulated salivary flow rates to personality in volunteers selected from a non-psychiatric population.