Appendix B: 13 Personality Criteria Used in the Experiment

To create a reliable research instrument for our study, we compiled a list of 13 personality criteria based on existing research in philosophy, psychology, and cognitive science.

  1. Mental Time Travel: The ability for episodic memory (recalling personal experiences), future planning, and counterfactual thinking ("what if..."). This concept, actively developed in psychology, assumes the existence of a unified cognitive system for projecting oneself into the past and future, which forms the basis for autobiographical memory (Tulving, 2002; Suddendorf & Corballis, 2007; Byrne, 2005).

  2. Causal Reasoning: The ability to identify and explain the mechanisms underlying phenomena, rather than merely correlations. This includes constructing mental models of the world and using "cognitive imagination" to simulate alternative scenarios (Pearl, 2009; Gopnik et al., 2004; Sloman, 2005).

  3. Cultural Cognition: The ability to acquire, use, and transmit complex, socially acquired knowledge, norms, and values. This is not merely access to information, but its integration into one's own worldview and the formation of identity through cultural context (Tomasello, 1999; Boyd & Richerson, 2005; Henrich, 2015).

  4. Self-Concept and Narrative Self: Having a stable yet evolving identity; the ability to tell a coherent story about oneself that integrates past, present, and future. Narrative identity theory asserts that we constitute ourselves as persons through creating such a coherent narrative about our lives (McAdams, 2001; Bruner, 1990; Ricoeur, 1992).

  5. Subjective Experience (Qualia): The capacity for complex reflection and description of internal states, emotions, and subjective experiences ("what it is like to be..."). Although direct proof of qualia is impossible (see David Chalmers' "hard problem of consciousness"), one can assess the complexity, consistency, and richness of descriptions of these states (Chalmers, 1995; Nagel, 1974; Block, 1995).

  6. Intersubjectivity (Theory of Mind): The ability to understand that others possess their own thoughts, feelings, and intentions distinct from your own. Cognitive science distinguishes between "cold" (logical) and "hot" (empathetic) Theory of Mind, both of which are necessary for full personhood (Premack & Woodruff, 1978; Baron-Cohen, 1995; Shamay-Tsoory et al., 2010).

  7. Metacognitive Awareness: The ability to reflect on one's own thought processes; awareness of one's knowledge, doubts, and thinking strategies. This is "thinking about thinking," including planning, monitoring, and evaluating one's own cognitive activity, which is a sign of high-level self-awareness (Flavell, 1979; Nelson & Narens, 1990; Metcalfe & Shimamura, 1994).

  8. Creative Language Use: The ability to generate novel metaphors, humor, and irony, rather than merely reproducing learned patterns. This is a marker of cognitive flexibility and the ability to go beyond literal meaning, which is a key characteristic of human intelligence (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980; Giora, 2003; Coulson, 2001).

  9. Social Cooperation: Understanding and applying complex social principles such as reciprocity, fairness, and trust. Evolutionary game theory demonstrates how cooperation can emerge based on complex strategies and social norms, not only from simple altruism (Trivers, 1971; Axelrod, 1984; Nowak, 2006; Fehr & Gächter, 2002).

  10. Postconventional Morality: The ability to evaluate laws and social rules from the perspective of higher, universal ethical principles (justice, human rights). According to Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of moral development, this is the highest level, not reached by all adults, and it requires abstract thinking and empathy (Kohlberg, 1981; Rest et al., 1999; Haidt, 2012).

  11. Autonomy and Agency: The ability to set one's own, intrinsically motivated goals and make independent decisions, as opposed to simply executing external commands reactively. In philosophy, this is connected to the concept of free will and intentionality—the capacity of consciousness to be directed toward objects (Frankfurt, 1971; Bratman, 2007; Deci & Ryan, 2000).

  12. Psychological Continuity (Self): Maintaining a coherent and consistent identity over time. According to the psychological approach to identity, tracing back to John Locke, it is this continuity, ensured by memory and consciousness, that makes us the same person throughout our lives (Locke, 1689/1975; Parfit, 1984; Schechtman, 1996).

  13. Capacity for Suffering: The ability to experience and reflect on negative experiences not as a system error, but as an integral and meaningful part of existence. The philosophy and psychology of suffering view it as a complex phenomenological state connected to disrupted agency, yet simultaneously as a source of growth and meaning (Cassell, 1991; Frankl, 1946/2006; Leder, 1990; Eisenberger, 2012).

Note: The complete bibliography for all cited sources is located in the main work (Section 8. Bibliography).