Psychologists usually need to run a battery of tests to know the personality traits of a person. But a new study could change this method because it discovered that an algorithm could be used to identify the personality profile by using data from how a person uses their smartphones.
Enter the person's clicks, likes, posts, and web visits into the algorithm, and it will give the personality profile of that person. Questioning then becomes unnecessary.
The new study was published in the journal of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, led by Clemens Stachl of Stanford University. Stachl and his team found that they could use three of the Big Five personality dimensions—extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness—to accurately predict personality from the usage patterns of the people's smartphone.
The Big Five Personality Traits
The Big Five personality traits are abbreviated to a five-letter word 'OCEAN' wherein each letter is the first letter of the personality trait: Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. Each of these traits represents a continuum in which an individual can fall anywhere on the continuum of that trait.
Personality traits can be influenced by genes and the environment and an estimated 50% of heritability. The Big Five also is known to predict important life outcomes like education and health.
In the new study, the researchers looked into the first three traits, but the agreeableness and neuroticism are also being studied now.
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Using the Big Five to Predict Personality Types
The researchers tested whether the usage patterns of people on their smartphones would accurately predict their personality traits based on the Big Five taxonomy. Usage patterns include daytime versus nighttime phone activity, mobility behaviors, overall phone activity, communication and social behavior, music consumption, and app usage.
The results proved that they indeed could predict personality traits, specifically by 57% of the behavioral patterns derived in their smartphone usage.
Some of these personalities are unsurprisingly easier to predict than others. According to the researchers, they found that 'sociableness' is the most predictable personality trait, while 'good naturedness' is the least predictable trait. Additionally, traits such as 'love of order,' sense of duty,' and 'self-consciousness' are also some of the most predictable personality traits.
Among the three dimensions of the Big Five, namely extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness to experience, the number of nightly effectively predicts the extraversion trait. Meanwhile, the use of weather predicted best the personality trait of conscientiousness, and openness to experience is best predicted by the length of a person's text messages.
Privacy Concerns
The researchers also noted the privacy concerns related to their research. According to them, the potential and negative consequences of the routine collection, modeling, and uncontrolled personal data should not be underestimated. Some organizations or companies will use this data they obtained from social media sites for marketing.
There is evidence that suggests these data are being used for psychologically targeting specific people that are matched to the personality they are looking for to influence their behaviors. These include decision-making on purchases and potentially voting behaviors, which are related to the personality traits of a person.
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