How do personality traits affect communication among users in online social networks?

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this work is to analyse the relationships between the personality traits of linked users in online social networks. First the authors tried to discover relation patterns between personality dimensions in conversations. They also wanted to verify some hypotheses: whether users' personality is stable throughout different conversation threads and whether the similarity-attraction paradigm can be verified in this context. They used the five factor model of personality or Big Five, which has been widely studied in psychology. Design/methodology/approach – One of the approaches to detect users' personalities is by analysing the language they use when they talk to others. Based on this assumption the authors computed users' personality from the conversations extracted from the MySpace social network. Then the authors analysed the relationships among personality traits of users to discover patterns. Findings – The authors found that there are patterns between some personality dimensions in conversation threads, for example, agreeable people tend to communicate with extroverted people. They confirmed that the personality stability theory can be verified in social networks. Finally the authors could verify the similarity-attraction paradigm for some values of personality traits, such as extroversion, agreeableness, and openness to experience. Originality/value – The results the authors found provide some clues about how people communicate within online social networks, particularly who they tend to communicate with depending on their personality. The discovered patterns can be used in a wide range of applications, such as suggesting contacts in online social networks. Although some studies have been made regarding the role of personality in social media, no similar analysis has been done to evaluate how users communicate in social media considering their personality.