A study published in early August suggested only 22 people would be needed to populate Mars, but they’d have to fit the right personality type.
The study has yet to be peer-reviewed, but the initial methodology seems pretty on-point. The researchers gathered data from other high stress environments, such as submarines, Arctic explorations and war. They analyzed the four main personality types in these situations. The purpose was to understand the behavioral and psychological interactions required for future colonization of the red planet.
Four personality types were assessed: agreeable (not very competitive or aggressive), social (extroverted), reactive (those who don’t like change) and neurotic (highly competitive and aggressive). These four types were then analyzed under the context of typical Martian tasks, like farming, mining and other things required to sustain life.
The race to Mars has officially begun https://t.co/DxqQDEfI8S
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) December 22, 2022
Using an Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) simulation, the researchers found a minimum population of 22 people was required to fully colonize Mars, and those people had to be mostly agreeable or social.
If more neurotic or reactive types were placed on Mars, then a greater population would be required for success, the study found. (RELATED: Scientists Stunned By What They’re Seeing In New Images Of Deep Space)
Aside from the implications for Mars, the study says a lot about how reactive and neurotic types make things more complicated and difficult for agreeable and social types. It’s almost like they slow down the progress of humanity’s development. Perhaps our future leaders should take a test to determine their personality type so we don’t accidentally vote for someone who is going to screw everything up for us.