How you use Facebook can reveal your personality, say researchers

Want to know what kind of a person you are? Then, how you use Facebook can reveal your personality, a new study has claimed.


Researchers at the University of Missouri have developed a new scale that judges people’s personality based on how they use the popular social media site.

The scale reveals that those who like high-risk activity tend to update their status, upload photos and interact with friends frequently. While those who are more reserved tend to merely scroll through Facebook’s “news feed”, and don’t upload photos or actively engage with their friends.

The researchers developed the scale after they surveyed people about how they use of Facebook and had them take a personality test.

Those who leaned toward high-risk activities were labeled as “appetitive”, with those who were more reserved in their activities labelled as “aversive.” While both personality types use Facebook frequently, a significant difference was found in how each uses the site, Heather Shoenberger, the leader of the research team said.


“If you’re highly ‘appetitive’ or lean toward high-risk activities, you’re more likely to want to engage with media that are more exciting, whereas those who are higher in the aversive trait tend to enjoy safer and more predictable media experiences,” Shoenberger was quoted as saying by LiveScience.

The scale could help advertisers target online audiences easier, said Shoenberger.

“I believe this could really help advertisers and certain types of media groups target potential customers with particular ads on social media sites,” she said. She added that individuals could be identified through the motivation activation measure, thus giving advertisers an advantage over their competitors and bringing order to online advertising.

She said companies that want to target consumers for a high-risk activity should determine active Facebook users who frequently post pictures and update their status. The findings were presented at the International Communication Association Conference in Phoenix.