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The stereotype could be true

According to folk wisdom in many cultures, redheaded people tend to be a bit temperamental. An Israeli researcher believes there may be something to the ancient prejudice. At the Honolulu conference, Psychiatrist Michael Bar, of Israel's Shalvata Psychiatric Center, reported a study showing that redheaded children are three or four times more likely than others to develop "hyperactive syndrome" --whose symptoms include overexcitability, short attention span, quick feelings of frustration and, usually, excessive aggressiveness.

Bar arrived at his conclusion after matching the behavior of 45 redheaded boys and girls between the ages of six and twelve against that of a control group of nonredheaded kids. Though the evidence was far from conclusive, Bar believes the study points to a genetic connection between red hair and hyperactive behavior. "It is possible," he says, "that the assumed national characteristics of certain ethnic groups, like the adventurousness of the Vikings and the temperament of the Irish, are connected to the high frequency of redheads among them."

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