Graphology, also called graphoanalysis, is a system of personality analysis based on the theory that the way a person forms letters in cursive handwriting reveals the writer's personality. For example, crossing t's high on the vertical stroke is said to indicate high self-esteem. Crossing t's low is said to indicate low self-esteem. Loops at the top left of capital M's and N's are said to indicate self-consciousness, and so on.
Unfortunately, graphology fails experimental tests. Test subjects submitted handwriting samples and were given a personality profile by psychologists. Graphologists were asked to match the handwriting samples to the personality profiles. The graphologists succeeded in matching the subject's personality profiles to their handwriting at no greater rate than would be expected by chance.
Graphologists claim their analysis is not definitive, but merely indicative. This is similar to astrologers saying, when people don't act as their charts predict, that the planets and stars do not compel, but only incline. The evidence indicates that the way people form their cursive letters has more to do with instruction and muscle and tendon structure than personality.
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