Running Head: PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA 1

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1 Running Head: PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA 1 Reflection of Personality in Social Media Gina Mancini April 6, 2015 CMST 4899

2 PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA 2 Abstract This paper analyzes the ways in which a person s personality can predict his or her etiquette on social networking sites (SNS) such as Facebook and Twitter. This includes, but is not limited to, the types of posts that have been made, the types of photos that have been uploaded, and the amount of people he or she is friends with on public sites. The effect of the Big 5 Personality Traits theory on social media usage has been thoroughly researched and will be discussed. Furthermore, there are aspects of a person s personality such as Need for Cognition and his or her ability to multi-task that will be explained. Lastly, the Uses and Gratifications theory will be discussed and will help explain some of the different motivations within a person s personality that may cause him or her to act a certain way on social media. Keywords: social networking sites, Big 5 personality traits theory, Uses and Gratification theory, social media

3 PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA 3 Reflection of Personality in Social Media Introduction With social media becoming such a huge part of life, social networking sites are allowing people to create profiles and portray themselves through a virtual world. These social networking includes Facebook, Twitter, etc. Studies have shown that it is possible to depict and predict and person s personality just by looking at his or her social media profiles. These profiles include types of posts that are being made, photos that are being uploaded, and even the amount of people he or she is friends with on public sites. By researching the different ways personality traits are reflected in these aspects of a person s virtual profile, and their motivations behind these posts, people will be able to better understand how to accurately interpret a person through this ever-growing technological world. This paper addresses the theories that have been thoroughly researched and that provide detailed explanations as to how personality traits can predict the way a person will use social media. The Big 5 Personality traits theory will be discussed, as well as some other aspects of a person s personality that may influence his or her social media etiquette; the Uses and Gratification theory will also be examined. Literature Review The Big 5 Personality Traits The Big 5 Personality Traits is a theory that includes five aspects of personality that every person acquires. Each trait is a continuum meaning that a person can either contain a high level of a specific trait, or a low level of that trait (Correa & Willard, 2010). The Big 5 Personality traits are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion,

4 PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA 4 agreeableness, and neuroticism. A good way to remember these traits is by using the acronym, OCEAN. Many correlations have been found between The Big 5 Personality Traits and different types of posts on social networking sites. Each section below will go into more depth defining each of these personality traits and how they have been researched in the past to explain social media behavior. Openness. Openness is defined as one s willingness to seek new adventure; if a person has a high level of openness, then he or she is adventurous and if a person has a low level of openness, then he or she is a worrisome person, or a cautious person (Hughes, Rowe, Batey, & Lee, 2012). Studies have shown that people who rank high in openness are more likely to use social media because they do not restrict themselves from trying new things (Correa and Willard, 2010). Typically, the people who are more open are the people that are first to have a profile on a new social networking site. Hughes, Rowe, Batey, and Lee (2012) surveyed undergraduate students and found that people who ranked high in openness were more likely to use social media, yet they found that these people used Twitter more than Facebook. This was explained by saying that Twitter is more of an active site, where people are constantly posting updated statuses. Therefore, people who are more open are more likely to use a site where they can constantly be posting statuses and reading new ones (Hughes et al., 2012). Like the other researchers, Park, Schwartz, Kern, Kosinski, Stillwell, Ungar, and Seligman (2014) also found that open people use social media more often. In contrast, though, they did more of a language-based assessment, rather than a survey. They coded participants profiles to gather a collection of posts, photos, etc. They found that people whose statuses

5 PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA 5 contained language that is more negative ranked higher in openness because they are open to expressing how they are feeling (2014). Conscientiousness. Conscientiousness is defined as the amount of organization and efficiency within one s personality; if a person has a low level of conscientiousness then he or she is most likely disorganized or has a poor sense of time management (Kalman, Scissors, Gill, & Gergle, 2013). Stoughton, Thompson and Meade (2013) performed a study in which they focused on how personality traits affected how much badmouthing a person did on social media. In their study, badmouthing was defined as talking negatively about a person through a social media post. They found that people who scored lower in conscientiousness were more likely to badmouth on social media. The researchers explained this by relating people with low levels of conscientiousness to having no filter. They are not aware of their surroundings and they act on impulse (2013). Similar to Stoughton and his colleagues, there was another study done that actually coded people s Facebook profiles to gather information about the number of photos, posts, etc., as well as the nature of the posts (Hall, Pennington, & Lueders, 2014). They found that the more humor someone use on their profile, the less he or she scored in conscientiousness (2014). Extraversion. According to Correa and Willard (2010), a person who is high in extraversion is an outgoing and talkative person, whereas a person who acquires a low level of extraversion is more shy and quiet. In their study, they sent out a mass , and received around 1,800 responses in which they found that people who scored higher in extraversion used social media more often than people who scored lower in extraversion did (2010). Furthermore, Park, Schwartz, Kern, Kosinski, Stillwell, Ungar,

6 PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA 6 and Seligman (2014) conducted their language-based assessment and found that people who were more extraverted used more positive language in their posts. Likewise, Hall, Pennington, and Lueders (2014) found that the higher someone scored in extraversion, the more Facebook friends they acquired. When it came to badmouthing, Stoughton, Thompson, and Meade (2013) found that people who ranked high in extraversion were more likely to post photos and posts about alcohol. Agreeableness. In addition, Correa and Willard (2010) explain that a person who ranks high in agreeableness is a friendly and generous person, where as someone who ranks low in this category may be more selfish. When it came to badmouthing, it was found that people who scored lower in agreeableness were more likely to badmouth on social media (Stoughton et al., 2013). This makes sense because someone who does not rank high in agreeableness is more likely to be less friendly. Neuroticism. High levels of neuroticism is defined as being anxious, stressed, and emotional, whereas a low level of neuroticism is defined as being calm, cool, and collected (Kalman et al., 2013). For example, Hughes, Rowe, Batey, and Lee (2012) surveyed undergraduate students and found that neuroticism influenced the use of Facebook. The more stressed, anxious, and emotional a person was, the more he or she used Facebook. Some people use social media as an escape from the real world, so it is predicted that a person with high anxiety and stress levels may use SNS more because they are able to use the virtual world as an escape from the real world. Correa and Willard (2010) gathered their information through a survey of undergraduate students and found that people who scored higher in neuroticism used social media more than those who scored lower in this category did. With that being said, it has also been found that

7 PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA 7 people who do not post things about social activities and hobbies as often score higher in neuroticism (Hall, Pennington, & Lueders, 2014). The correlations between The Big 5 Personality Traits and social media behavior are obvious through the literature that has just been reviewed. Each trait has its own connection and explanation as to why people may engage in certain etiquette on social networking sites. A few behaviors that have been discussed are how often they use it (Correa and Willard, 2010; Hughes et al., 2012), what type of language they tend to use (Park et al., 2014), and how likely they are to badmouth in their posts (Stoughton et al., 2013). Although this theory cannot explain all types of behaviors that are found on social media, The Big 5 Personality Traits theory deems relevant in attempting to explain people s behavior in the ever-growing virtual world. Other Personality Traits and SNS Although the Big 5 personality traits are an obvious predictor of types of posts on social media profiles, there are also other aspects of personality that have been found to influence social media posting. There has been much evidence to support a variety of other personality traits that may affect social media behavior. Need for Cognition. A person s Need for Cognition is another personality trait that has been studied in the past. The Need for Cognition is defined as being one s choice to participate in effortful thinking (Zhong, Hardin, & Sun, 2011). In other words, it is a person s motivation to engage in cognitive tasks, but also enjoying them. A person with a high level of a Need for Cognition wants to make an understanding of the world. This personality trait generates a lot of computer-mediated communication because they are motivated to seek more knowledge, and what better way to do that than through the

8 PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA 8 Internet (2011). Zhong, Hardin, and Sun (2011) performed a study specifically on the Need for Cognition in which they surveyed college students at a large university. The survey asked questions about how much the participants enjoyed abstract thinking, etc. Surprising to them, they found that the higher a person scored in Need for Cognition, the less they used social networking sites (2011). They believed this was because college students find that information on the Internet affects more emotional aspects of their brain, such as their mood, rather than the cognitive areas of their brain. Self-Disclosure. Another area that has been studied significantly when comparing personality traits to social media communication is the likelihood of a person to self-disclose information on social media. This includes basic information such as things they like to do or types of entertainment they enjoy, personal information, health issues, and so on. A study was done at a mid-sized University in the United States that surveyed 375 undergraduate students (Jin, 2013). The questions consisted of ones that measured how likely a person was to disclose a certain type of information on social networking sites, as well as how a person perceived themselves in the real world, as opposed to how they present themselves on social media (2013). The researcher found that there are prominent layers to self-disclosure on social media. People tend to disclose the most information about entertainment, and the least information about personal healthy issues. He also found that people who were more outgoing and extraverted tended to self-disclose the most information on social media (2013). From reviewing these articles by Zhong, et al. (2011) and Jin (2013), it is obvious that there are other aspects of a person s personality that not only correlate with the Big 5 Personality Traits, but that also predict behavior on SNS.

9 PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA 9 Uses and Gratification Theory There is obvious evidence of the Big 5 Personality traits, as well as other personality traits, that suggest their influences of behavior on SNS, but there has also been evidence of discovered motivations as to why people post the things they do. The Uses and Gratifications theory was developed to explain what motives people have for posting on social media. In other words, it explains what social media does for people, rather than what people do for social media. In terms of personality, it is worthwhile to explore the connections between motives that people have and what personality traits they portray. Leung (2013) defines the Uses and Gratifications Theory as being what causes a user to post things on social media and what they get from doing it. Similar to this definition, Eftekhar, Fullwood, and Morris (2014) define this theory as being that people are aware and motivated by certain needs and wants that are satisfied by using social media. In all, the Uses and Gratification theory states that people are motivated by different things that cause them to use social media as an outlet to act on these motivations. Leung conducted a study in 2013 in which he conducted multiple phone studies, mailed out surveys, and facilitated focus groups; 596 participants completed all three aspects of this study. He specifically studied how much time participants spent on social media, what motivates them to post things on social media, and he gained insight on the participants levels of narcissism. Leung defined narcissism as the feeling of being better than everyone else, and feeling as if oneself is more special than others. The major finding from this study was that there were five prominent motivations that caused people

10 PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA 10 to want to use social media. These included social and affection needs, getting rid of negative feelings, need for recognition, entertainment, and seeking knowledge to increase cognitive abilities. Furthermore, he found that people who scored higher in narcissism had more use for social media than people who scored lower in this category (2013). Similar to Leung (2013), Eftekhar, Fullwood, and Morris conducted a study in 2014 studying the Uses and Gratification Theory and its correlations to social media and the Big 5 Personality Traits. The researchers had the undergraduate participants take the International Personality Item Pool where they measure their levels of the Big 5 Personality traits. Researchers also coded people s Facebook profiles, and surveyed them as to what their motivations were for using social media. The researchers found that people who scored higher in extraversion were motivated to upload more photos, as well as have more photo albums added to their profiles. This is because they are motivated to share their experiences with their friends and family, as their personalities are more outgoing. They also found that people who scored higher in agreeableness had more likes on their photos. This is because people who have a higher level of agreeableness are more motivated to post things that more people will agree with, as opposed to things that may cause controversy, Although Leung (2013) and Eftekhar, Fullwood, and Morris (2014) conducted surveys that produced useful results, the fact that both studies required self-report might cause potential issues in the validity of results. Despite this minor setback, The research of Leung (2013) and Efetkhar, et al. (2014) suggest that there are many motivations as to why people choose to post certain things on social media, and that these motivations differ from person to person depending on their personality traits.

11 PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA 11 Summary In all, research suggests that it is possible to gain insight to a person s personality through their virtual profiles. The Big 5 Personality Traits have been the most rigorously studied when it comes to finding correlations between personality traits and the use of social media. Much of this information came through surveys of participants (Correa and Willard, 2010; Hughes et al, 2012; Stoughton et al, 2013; Kalman et al, 2013), in which they used the Big 5 Personality Inventory to assess the personality traits, as well as a selfreport survey to gather information about their social media usage. Other researchers actually coded people s Facebook profiles in order to gain the knowledge necessary instead of relying on people to give their own opinions (Park et al, 2014; Hall et al, 2014). Regardless of the methods used, many of the results that came from these studies were in relation to each other. In each study that was presented, there was a correlation found between the relevance of social media use and a person s personality characteristics. There were other studies presented that focused on different personality traits other than the Big 5 Personality Traits, but ones that still correlated with the Big 5 traits. One of these traits was the Need for Cognition, in which the researchers found that people who scored higher in the Need for Cognition used social media less (Zhong et al, 2011). Another study that was presented focused on self-disclosure, and the researchers found that there were multiple layers to disclosing information on social media, and that people share more information about entertainment and the least about personal healthy information (Jin, 2013).

12 PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA 12 Lastly, the Uses and Gratification Theory was presented as a theory that explains why people are motivated to use social media and what aspects of their personalities affect these motivations. Both of the studies examined found several different motivations as to why people use social media (Leung, 2013), as well as how different personality traits correlated with motivations to use social media (Eftekhar, 2014). Limitations and Future Research As previously stated, much of the research done on these concepts have required mostly self-report, with only a few actually coding participants profiles. Future research should focus on methods of research that will produce results that acquire more validity. Another limitation is that much of the research that has been done studied participants that were undergraduate students at a university, which does not leave many variations in age range. Thus, the first research question (RQ1) is whether there is a difference in social media use based on personality traits when it comes to different age generations. A third limitation is that there has not been much research on motivations to use social media, thus a second research question (RQ2) is what are people s motivations to use social media in correlation with the Big 5 Personality traits. Lastly, there is a lack of research studying the difference in gender, thus establishing our third research questions (RQ3): What differences exist between males and females when it comes to posting on SNS and their motives to do so in correlation with their personality traits. Conclusion This paper first reviewed how the Big 5 Personality Traits correlates with people s usage of social media. Secondly, other personality traits were examined that also correlated with social media use, as well as the Big 5 Personality traits. Lastly, the

13 PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA 13 Uses and Gratification theory was touched upon as a way to explain the motivations for using social media in terms of personality traits. These theories were used to explain how a person can better understand another person through their virtual profiles. It is clear that personality traits and different motivations influence what people post on social media. Understanding what these traits and motives are can help people to better connect and communicate with others in the ever-growing virtual world.

14 PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA 14 References Correa, T., & Willard, A. (2010). Who interacts on the Web? The intersection of users' personality and social media use. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(2), Eftekhar, A., Fullwood, C., & Morris, N. (2014). Capturing personality from Facebook photos and photo-related activities: How much exposure do you need? Computers in Human Behavior, 37, Hall, J., Pennington, N., & Lueders, A. (2014). Impression management and formation on Facebook: A lens model approach. New Media and Society, 16(6), Hughes, D., Rowe, M., Batey, M., & Lee, A. (2012). A tale of two sites: Twitter vs. Facebook and the personality predictors of social media usage. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(2), Jin, A. (2013). Peeling back the multiple layers of Twitter's private disclosure onion: The roles of virtual identity discrepancy ad personality traits in communication privacy management on Twitter. New Media and Society, 15(6), Kalman, Y., Scissors, L., Gill, A., & Gergle, D. (2013). Online chronemics convey social information. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(3), Leung, L. (2013). Generational differences in content generation in social media: The roles of the gratifications sought and of narcissism. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(3), Park, G., Schwartz, A., Kern, M., Kosinski, M., Stillwell, D., Ungar, L., & Seligman, M. (2014). Automatic Personality Assessment Through Social Media Language. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

15 PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA 15 Stoughton, W., Thompson, L., & Meade, A. (2013). Big five personality traits reflected in job applicant's social media postings. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 16(11), Zhong, B., Hardin, M., & Sun, T. (2011). Less effortful thinking leads to more social networking? The associations between the use of social network sites and personality traits. Computers in Human Behavior, 27(3),