Those who believe their Facebook profiles are not an accurate representation of themselves may, in fact, be mistaken. This is according to the results of a recent study by the University of Texas in Austin.
The study, titled "Manifestations of Personality in Online Social Networks: Self-Reported Facebook-Related Behaviours and Observable Profile Information", shows that Facebook users are essentially the same offline as they are online.
“Despite the enormous popularity of online social networking sites (OSNS), little research in psychology has been done on them,” says the study.
“Results suggest that, rather than escaping from or compensating for their offline personality, OSN users appear to extend their offline personalities into the domains of OSNS.”
In order to gauge the connections between personality and OSN behaviour, the researchers conducted two exploratory studies to examine how traits are expressed on Facebook.
The first study examined the correlation between self-reported Facebook usage and personality traits, while the second looked at the way personality traits are represented as observable information on the users' profiles.
Using the “big five personality traits” (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism) as markers, the research showed such traits are accurately reflected on platforms such as Facebook.
The first part of the study was based on the profiles of 159 psychology students. Those who were categorised as “extroverted” reported the highest number of Facebook friends and highest engagement levels.
Participants who fell under the “conscientious” personality type reported the least Facebook usage.
Virtual residue
According to the study, extroverts are likely to seek out virtual social engagement, which results in “virtual residue” such as status updates, photos, videos, links and other shared content.
Researchers saved the Facebook profiles of the participants prior to beginning the research in order to prevent the subjects from making any changes to their profiles.
The personalities of the assistants were then rated according to their online profiles only and then compared with the participants' actual personalities. Again strong correlations were found.
According to the study: “Supporting the idea that online social processes mirror those conducted offline, recent research suggests that people largely use offline tools to maintain their existing relationships and people who are liked in offline context are also liked online. Mirroring offline findings, those who use OSNS more frequently also possess greater social capital.”
New personality test
Last year, a similar study that was conducted by Jennifer Golbeck and others at the University of Maryland also found that, based on personality assessment of someone's Facebook profile, the results were within 10% of a person's actual personality score.
Researchers looked at the public profiles of close to 300 Facebook users, taking into account their favourite activities, TV shows, movies, books, music, quotes and membership in organisations.
The “About me” section was also included, while status updates and other data only available to a user's friends was left out of the study.
It is, however, noted that there are aspects of the personality that cannot be captured and that are more difficult to measure. But according to the study, the traits that are discoverable on a person's public Facebook profile can reveal almost everything an employer might need to know about an applicant's personality.
Discovery News quotes Golbeck: "Lots of organisations make their employees take personality tests. If you can guess someone's personality pretty well on the Web, you don't need them to take the test."
Golbeck is reportedly now looking at the correlations between users' Twitter profiles and their real-world personalities.
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