Sparrows are healthier living in groups with diverse personalities

By Christa Lesté-Lasserre

Shutterstock / JoelSantos

House sparrows are healthier when they live in groups in which different individuals have different personality types, rather than if all individuals share the same personality type.

The “surprising” findings suggest that personality diversity promotes not only a healthier society, but also better physical and mental health for each individual within that society, says Zoltan Barta at the University of Debrecen in Hungary.

While his team’s study focused on birds, its results may be applicable to other social species as well. “You can’t ignore the analogy with humans,” he says. …