Personality in its natural habitat: Manifestations and implicit folk theories of personality in daily life

How developments in natural language processing help us in understanding human behaviour

The ways people use language can reveal clues to their emotions, social behaviours, thinking styles, cultures and the worlds around them. In the past two decades, research at the intersection of social psychology and computer science has been developing tools to analyse natural language from written or spoken text to better understand social processes and behaviour. The goal of this Review is to provide a brief overview of the methods and data currently being used and to discuss the underlying meaning of what language analyses can reveal in comparison with more traditional methodologies such as surveys or hand-scored language samples.

Protocol for a randomized controlled trial comparing phone-based prenatal mindfulness training to usual care for pregnant people at risk for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) are the most common medical conditions in pregnancy and a leading cause of maternal morbidity and mortality in the United States. There are few interventions available to prevent HDP, and those currently available do not target underlying mechanisms of disease. Mindfulness training (MT) is effective at reducing blood pressure in non-pregnant patients with pre-hypertension and hypertension and has proven more effective at blood pressure reduction than other stress management interventions. MT thus holds great promise as a mind-body intervention to prevent HDP. This randomized trial will harness subjective and objective ecological momentary assessment methodology combined with wearable biosensor technology to capture psychological, physiological, and interpersonal processes through which MT may lead to improved maternal cardiovascular parameters. Pregnant women at risk for HDP will be randomized to an 8-week phone-delivered MT intervention or usual care. Through these methods, we will evaluate psychological, physiological, and interpersonal responses to daily experiences linking MT to cardiovascular parameters among women at risk for HDP.

Too much focus on your health might be bad for your health: Reddit user's communication style predicts their Long COVID likelihood

Long Covid is a chronic disease that affects more than 65 million people worldwide, characterized by a wide range of persistent symptoms following a Covid-19 infection. Previous studies have investigated potential risk factors contributing to elevated vulnerability to Long Covid. However, research on the social traits associated with affected patients is scarce. This study introduces an innovative methodological approach that allows us to extract valuable insights directly from patients' voices. By analyzing written texts shared on social media platforms, we aim to collect information on the psychological aspects of people who report experiencing Long Covid. In particular, we collect texts of patients they wrote BEFORE they were afflicted with Long Covid. We examined the differences in communication style, sentiment, language complexity, and psychological factors of natural language use among the profiles of 6.107 Reddit users, distinguishing between those who claim they have never contracted Covid -19, those who claim to have had it, and those who claim to have experienced Long Covid symptoms. Our findings reveal that people in the Long Covid group frequently discussed health-related topics before the pandemic, indicating a greater focus on health-related concerns. Furthermore, they exhibited a more limited network of connections, lower linguistic complexity, and a greater propensity to employ emotionally charged expressions than the other groups. Using social media data, we can provide a unique opportunity to explore potential risk factors associated with Long Covid, starting from the patient's perspective.

F@#$ pain! A mini-review of the hypoalgesic effects of swearing

Swearing, or the use of taboo language, has been repeatedly shown to induce hypoalgesia. While reliable hypoalgesic effects have been observed across studies, the mechanisms by which swearing influences pain and the optimal dosage of swearing remain poorly understood. Plausible mechanistic rationale for swearing's impact on pain include sympathetic response, emotion, humor, distraction, aggression, state disinhibition, psychological flow, risky behavior, and self-confidence. It remains unknown how the intensity of the swear word, speech volume, frequency, or timing influences pain modulation. While the majority of evidence demonstrates the efficacy of swearing at attenuating acute pain responses, these studies have utilized healthy populations with controlled experiments in laboratory settings. Comparatively, less is known about how laboratory findings translate practically/clinically to diverse populations, various dosages, and different pain chronicities. A greater understanding of mechanistic underpinnings and practical implications are necessary to feasibly implement swearing as a therapeutic modality to combat pain. The purpose of the following mini-review is to provide an overview of the current evidence on swearing for the reduction of pain, speculate on plausible underlying mechanisms, and discuss the potential for optimization of swearing for real-world translation. Lastly, identifying knowledge gaps to aid in directing future research will be discussed.

The Within-Subject Association of Physical Behavior and Affective Well-Being in Everyday Life: A Systematic Literature Review

BACKGROUND

The interplay of physical activity (PA) with affective well-being (AWB) is highly critical to both health behaviors and health outcomes. Current prominent theories presume AWB to be crucial for PA maintenance, and PA is evidenced to foster mental health. However, thus far, PA-AWB associations have mainly been researched in laboratory settings and with interventional designs, but the everyday life perspective had not been focused on, mostly due to technological limitations. In the course of digitization, the number of studies using device-based methods to research the within-subject association of physical activity and affective well-being (PA-AWB) under ecological valid conditions increased rapidly, but a recent comprehensive systematic review of evidence across populations, age groups, and distinct AWB components remained inconclusive.

OBJECTIVES

Therefore, we aimed to firstly review daily-life studies that assessed intensive longitudinal device-based (e.g., electronic smartphone diaries and accelerometry) and real-time PA-AWB data, secondly to develop and apply a quality assessment tool applicable to those studies, and thirdly to discuss findings and draw implications for research and practice.

METHODS

To this end, the literature was searched in three databases (Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus) up to November 2022. The systematic review followed the PRISMA guidelines and had been pre-registered (PROSPERO id: CRD42021277327). A modified quality assessment tool was developed to illustrate the risk of bias of included studies.

RESULTS

The review of findings showed that, in general, already short PA bouts in everyday life, which clearly differ from structured exercise sessions, are positively associated with AWB. In particular, feelings of energy relate to incidental (non-exercise and unstructured) activity, and PA-AWB associations depend on population characteristics. The quality assessment revealed overall moderate study quality; however, the methods applied were largely heterogeneous between investigations. Overall, the reviewed evidence on PA-AWB associations in everyday life is ambiguous; for example, no clear patterns of directions and strengths of PA-AWB relationships depending on PA and AWB components (such as intensity, emotions, affect, mood) emerged.

CONCLUSIONS

The reviewed evidence can fuel discussions on whether the World Health Organization's notion "every move counts" may be extended to everyday life AWB. Concurrently, the PA-AWB relationship findings endorse prominent theories highlighting the critical role of AWB in everyday PA engagement and maintenance. However, the review also clearly highlights the need to advance and harmonize methodological approaches for more fine-grained investigations on which specific PA/AWB characteristics, contextual factors, and biological determinants underly PA-AWB associations in everyday life. This will enable the field to tackle pressing challenges such as the issue of causality of PA-AWB associations, which will help to shape and refine existing theories to ultimately predict and improve health behavior, thereby feeding into precision medicine approaches.

Multidimensional neural representations of social features during movie viewing

The social world is dynamic and contextually embedded. Yet, most studies utilize simple stimuli that do not capture the complexity of everyday social episodes. To address this, we implemented a movie viewing paradigm and investigated how everyday social episodes are processed in the brain. Participants watched one of two movies during an MRI scan. Neural patterns from brain regions involved in social perception, mentalization, action observation and sensory processing were extracted. Representational similarity analysis results revealed that several labeled social features (including social interaction, mentalization, the actions of others, characters talking about themselves, talking about others and talking about objects) were represented in the superior temporal gyrus (STG) and middle temporal gyrus (MTG). The mentalization feature was also represented throughout the theory of mind network, and characters talking about others engaged the temporoparietal junction (TPJ), suggesting that listeners may spontaneously infer the mental state of those being talked about. In contrast, we did not observe the action representations in the frontoparietal regions of the action observation network. The current findings indicate that STG and MTG serve as key regions for social processing, and that listening to characters talk about others elicits spontaneous mental state inference in TPJ during natural movie viewing.

Natural language sentiment as an indicator of depression and anxiety symptoms: a longitudinal mixed methods study1

The study tested how the use of positive- (e.g. beautiful) and negative-valenced (e.g. horrible) words in natural language and its change in time affects the severity of depression and anxiety symptoms among depressed and non-depressed individuals. This longitudinal mixed methods study (N = 40 participants, n = 1440 narratives) with three measurements within a year showed that at the between-person level the use of negative-valenced words was strongly associated with the increase in anxiety and depression symptoms over time while the use of positive-valenced words was slightly associated with the decrease in anxiety and depression symptom. These effects were not supported for within-person level (i.e. changes in word usage). No significant differences were observed in the effects between depressed and non-depressed groups. Summing up, the overall use of positive- and negative-valenced words (particularly negative-valenced words) had a stronger effect on the severity of psychopathological symptoms than their change over time. The results were discussed in the context of natural language processing and its application in diagnosing depression and anxiety symptoms.

Taboo language across the globe: A multi-lab study

The use of taboo words represents one of the most common and arguably universal linguistic behaviors, fulfilling a wide range of psychological and social functions. However, in the scientific literature, taboo language is poorly characterized, and how it is realized in different languages and populations remains largely unexplored. Here we provide a database of taboo words, collected from different linguistic communities (Study 1, N = 1046), along with their speaker-centered semantic characterization (Study 2, N = 455 for each of six rating dimensions), covering 13 languages and 17 countries from all five permanently inhabited continents. Our results show that, in all languages, taboo words are mainly characterized by extremely low valence and high arousal, and very low written frequency. However, a significant amount of cross-country variability in words' tabooness and offensiveness proves the importance of community-specific sociocultural knowledge in the study of taboo language.

The influence of conversational agents' role and communication style on user experience

Conversational Agents (CAs) are characterized by their roles within a narrative and the communication style they adopt during conversations. Within computer games, users' evaluation of the narrative is influenced by their estimation of CAs' intelligence and believability. However, the impact of CAs' roles and communication styles on users' experience remains unclear. This research investigates such influence of CAs' roles and communication styles through a crime-solving textual game. Four different CAs were developed and each of them was assigned to a role of either witness or suspect and to a communication style than can be either aggressive or cooperative. Communication styles were simulated through a Wizard of Oz method. Users' task was to interact, through real-time written exchanges, with the four CAs and then to identify the culprit, assess the certainty of their judgments, and rank the CAs based on their conversational preferences. In addition, users' experience was evaluated using perceptual measures (perceived intelligence and believability scales) and behavioral measures (including analysis of users' input length, input delay, and conversation length). The results revealed that users' evaluation of CAs' intelligence and believability was primarily influenced by CAs' roles. On the other hand, users' conversational behaviors were mainly influenced by CAs' communication styles. CAs' communication styles also significantly determined users' choice of the culprit and conversational preferences.

Self as both target and judge: Who has an easier time knowing their own personality?

OBJECTIVE

The past two decades have established that people generally have insight into their personalities, but less is known about how and why self-knowledge might vary between individuals. Using the Realistic Accuracy Model as a framework, we investigate whether some people make better "targets" of self-perception by behaving more consistently in everyday life, and whether these differences have benefits for psychological adjustment.

METHOD

Using data from the Electronically Activated Recorder (n = 286), we indexed self-knowledge as the link between self-reports of personality and actual daily behavior measured over 1 week. We then tested if consistency in daily behavior as well as psychological adjustment predicted stronger self-knowledge.

RESULTS

We found that behaving more consistently in everyday life was associated with more accurate self-reports, but that psychological adjustment was not.

CONCLUSIONS

Analogous to interpersonal perception, self-knowledge of personality might be affected by "target-side" factors, like the quality of information provided through one's behavior. However, unlike being a good target of interpersonal perception, self-knowledge does not seem to be related to psychological adjustment.

Who Has Active Lifestyles? Sociodemographic and Personality Correlates of Activity Diversity in Two Samples of Adults

OBJECTIVES

Activity diversity-an index of active lifestyles that captures variety (number) and evenness (consistency) in activity engagement-is known to support health in adulthood. However, less is known who has higher or lower activity diversity, information that helps identify individuals who may be at greater risk for poor health. This article examined sociodemographic characteristics and Big Five personality traits that may be associated with activity diversity.

METHODS

We used 2 independent project samples (nsample1 = 2,699; nsample2 = 301). Sample 1 included U.S. national adults in a wide age range (25-84). Sample 2 included U.S. community-dwelling older adults (age = 65-89). Each study asked about different types of activity engagement using surveys. The activity diversity index was calculated in each sample, using Shannon's entropy method.

RESULTS

In Sample 1, older adults, women, non-Hispanic White individuals, married/partnered individuals, and those with higher education and fewer functional limitations had higher activity diversity. Additionally, higher conscientiousness, higher extraversion, and lower neuroticism were each associated with higher activity diversity after controlling for sociodemographic factors. Extraversion and neuroticism remained significant in the younger group (age < 65) of Sample 1, but only extraversion was a significant factor associated with activity diversity in the older group (age ≥ 65). The results in the older group were generally replicated in Sample 2, such that higher extraversion in older adults was consistently associated with higher activity diversity independent of the strong correlates of sex, education, and functional limitations.

DISCUSSION

Findings were discussed in terms of age-specific associations between sociodemographic and personality characteristics and activity diversity.

Interdependencies Between Family and Friends in Daily Life: Personality Differences and Associations with Affective Well-Being Across the Lifespan

Family and friends are central to human life and well-being. Yet, interdependencies between family and friends have scarcely been examined. How is the relative frequency of daily contact with family and friends (i.e., the friends/family-ratio) related to personality and to well-being? In an experience sampling study with 396 participants (M age= 40 years, range 14-88 years, 52% females), we studied how the friends/family-ratio in contact differed along Big Five personality trait scores and was connected to affective well-being across six daily measurements on nine days (average of 55 assessments). Most participants reported more daily contact with family than friends (i.e. they held a family orientation), but individual differences were substantial. More agreeable individuals reported a greater family orientation. More extraverted individuals reported more positive affect in the company of friends than with family. Age moderated the effect of the friends/family-ratio on positive affect. Younger adults reported less positive affect in the company of family, yet older adults reported more positive affect in the company of family, the more they were friendship oriented. We discuss how examining the friends/family-ratio extends previous knowledge on personality differences in social relationships, and how the friends/family-ratio yields promising, yet challenging, future directions in personality-relationship associations.

Naturalistically observed interpersonal problems and diabetes management in older adolescents and young adults with type 1 diabetes

OBJECTIVE

This study investigated the links between naturalistically observed and self-reported interpersonal problems, diabetes management, and glucose levels in older adolescents and young adults with type 1 diabetes.

DESIGN

Sixty-eight older adolescents and young adults (aged 17-20 years) participated in a cross-sectional study that consisted of three home visits and a daily diary segment.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Participants wore the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) for four days to capture interpersonal problems and wore a continuous glucose monitor for blood glucose levels. Researchers also collected HbA1c values, conducted an interview to assess diabetes management, and collected participant-reported severity of interpersonal problems.

RESULTS

High EAR-observed interpersonal problems were associated with poor diabetes management. Multiple regression analyses revealed that high EAR-observed interpersonal problems continued to explain variance in poor diabetes management after including self-reported interpersonal problems and covariates.

CONCLUSION

These findings corroborate literature suggesting that negative interactions are associated with type 1 diabetes management. This study is the first to use the EAR to capture naturalistically observed interactions in this population and identify its utility beyond self-reports. These findings highlight the importance of considering naturalistically observed interactions when developing interventions to promote better diabetes management in older adolescents and young adults.

How Is Variety in Daily Life Related to the Expression of Personality States? An Ambulatory Assessment Study

People differ in the way they live their daily lives. For some people, daily life is characterized by multiple and diverse experiences, while others have more stability and routine in their lives. However, little is known about how variety in daily life relates to the expression of personality states. The present study examined within-person associations between variety in social partners, places, and activities with state expression. Data came from an ambulatory assessment study ( N = 962, Mage = 25.49) with four assessments per day over a period of six consecutive days. The results of the multilevel modeling analyses suggest that variety in daily life is associated with some, but not all, state expressions. For instance, on days when participants experienced a greater variety in activities, they reported being less neurotic and conscientious, but also more agreeable. In addition, the links between all social partners, places, and activities with the expression of the state were examined simultaneously to obtain more detailed information on the multifaceted nature of situation-state expression links. We conclude that variety in daily life has both theoretical and empirical relevance for the expression of personality states.

Testing for personality consistency across naturally occurring behavioral contexts in sanctuary chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Personality is both a reflection of the bio-behavioral profile of individuals and a summary of how they typically interact with their physical and social world. Personality is usually defined as having distinct behavioral characteristics, which are assumed to be consistent over time and across contexts. Like other mammals, primates have individual differences in personality. Although temporal consistency is sometimes measured in primates, and contextual consistency is sometimes measured across experimental contexts, it is rare to measure both in the same individuals and outside of experimental settings. Here, we aim to measure both temporal and contextual consistency in chimpanzees, assessing their personality with behavioral observations from naturally occurring contexts (i.e., real-life settings). We measured personality-based behaviors in 22 sanctuary chimpanzees, in the contexts of feeding, affiliation, resting, and solitude, across two time periods, spanning 4 years. Of the 22 behaviors recorded, about 64% were consistent across two to four contexts and 50% were consistent over time. Ten behaviors loaded significantly onto three trait components: explorativeness, boldness-sociability, and anxiety-sociability, as revealed by factor analysis. Like others, we documented individual differences in the personality of chimpanzees based on reliably measured observations in real-life contexts. Furthermore, we demonstrated relatively strong, but not absolute, temporal, and contextual consistency in personality-based behaviors. We also found another aspect of individual differences in personality, specifically, the extent to which individual chimpanzees show consistency. Some individuals showed contextual and temporal consistency, whereas others show significant variation across behaviors, contexts, and/or time. We speculate that the relative degree of consistency in personality may vary within chimpanzees. It may be that different primate species vary in the extent to which individuals show consistency of personality traits. Our behavioral-based assessment can be used with wild populations, increasing the validity of personality studies, facilitating comparative studies and potentially being applicable to conservation efforts.

How to know who you are through your short video selfies?-Capturing personality via short video selfies

The extant literature has accumulated enormous knowledge on personality prediction from digital records on social networking sites (e.g., photo selfies). However, little is known about how short video selfies reflect their owner's personality and how people judge others' personalities from short video selfies. Taking short video selfies is very popular today; many people are willing to share their short video selfies with others. Based on the lens model theory, it is expected that one's personality is associated with short video selfies. By analyzing 177 Chinese TikTok (Douyin in China) users' short video selfies and their Big Five personalities, it showed that specific cues in short video selfies related to agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness. But only extraversion could be predicted by short video selfies accurately. This study is the first to reveal personality-related cues in short video selfies and has practical implications for both short video platforms and their users.

Traveling and eating out during the COVID-19 pandemic: The Go To campaign policies in Japan

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic plunged many industries of the economy into contraction, particularly the travel, hotel accommodation, and eating/drinking industries. In Japan, some demand-inducing policies targeting such industries were implemented, known as the Go To Travel and Go To Eat campaigns. Using a unique individual-level survey, we investigate what factors make people respond to these campaign policies. We find that certain socioeconomics factors (e.g., gender, income, ICT skills) as well as noneconomic factors matter. In particular, risk attitudes, and personal traits (e.g., extraversion) crucially affect whether people traveled or dined out in response to these campaigns despite the spread of COVID-19.

A Failed Cross-Validation Study on the Relationship between LIWC Linguistic Indicators and Personality: Exemplifying the Lack of Generalizability of Exploratory Studies

(1) Background: Previous meta-analytic research found small to moderate relationships between the Big Five personality traits and different linguistic computational indicators. However, previous studies included multiple linguistic indicators to predict personality from an exploratory framework. The aim of this study was to conduct a cross-validation study analyzing the relationships between language indicators and personality traits to test the generalizability of previous results; (2) Methods: 643 Spanish undergraduate students were tasked to write a self-description in 500 words (which was evaluated with the LIWC) and to answer a standardized Big Five questionnaire. Two different analytical approaches using multiple linear regression were followed: first, using the complete data and, second, by conducting different cross-validation studies; (3) Results: The results showed medium effect sizes in the first analytical approach. On the contrary, it was found that language and personality relationships were not generalizable in the cross-validation studies; (4) Conclusions: We concluded that moderate effect sizes could be obtained when the language and personality relationships were analyzed in single samples, but it was not possible to generalize the model estimates to other samples. Thus, previous exploratory results found on this line of research appear to be incompatible with a nomothetic approach.

Adolescents hospitalised for suicidality: biomarkers, social and affective predictors: a cohort study

OBJECTIVES

The present research examines genomics and in vivo dynamics of family context and experienced affect following discharge from psychiatric hospitalisation for suicidal thoughts and behaviours (STBs). The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of a new model, description of model-guided integration of multiple methods, documentation of feasibility of recruitment and retention and a description of baseline sample characteristics.

DESIGN

The research involved a longitudinal, multimethod observational investigation.

SETTING

Participants were recruited from an inpatient child and adolescent psychiatric hospital. 194 participants ages 13-18 were recruited following hospitalisation for STB.

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES

Participants underwent a battery of clinical interviews, self-report assessments and venipuncture. On discharge, participants were provided with a phone with (1) the electronically activated recorder (EAR), permitting acoustic capture later coded for social context, and (2) ecological momentary assessment, permitting assessment of in vivo experienced affect and STB. Participants agreed to follow-ups at 3 weeks and 6 months.

RESULTS

A total of 71.1% of approached patients consented to participation. Participants reported diversity in gender identity (11.6% reported transgender or other gender identity) and sexual orientation (47.6% reported heterosexual or straight sexual orientation). Clinical interviews supported a range of diagnoses with the largest proportion of participants meeting criteria for major depressive disorder (76.9%). History of trauma/maltreatment was prevalent. Enrolment rates and participant characteristics were similar to other observational studies.

CONCLUSIONS

The research protocol characterises in vivo, real-world experienced affect and observed family context as associated with STB in adolescents during the high-risk weeks post discharge, merging multiple fields of study.

Personality, behavioral engagement, and psychological adaptation of high school students abroad: A longitudinal perspective on between- and within-person dynamics

International educational mobility is a life event that confronts sojourners with many challenges, such as adapting to a new living environment abroad. Whether these cultural adaptation processes are successful is contingent upon different factors. In the present study, we focused on the role of personality as well as host- and home-cultural behavioral engagement in the psychological adaptation of high school students during an academic year abroad. To that end, we analyzed data from the first four waves of the project Mobility and Acculturation Experiences of Students (MAPS) ( N = 1299 students in a year abroad) using a cross-lagged panel model (CLPM) and a random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) to address these associations at the interpersonal and intrapersonal level. The analyses revealed the complex interplay between personality, host- and home-cultural behavioral engagement, and adaptation at both the interpersonal and intrapersonal levels of analysis. Moreover, host-cultural behavioral engagement also mediated the predictive effects of personality traits on the psychological adaptation of sojourners in the CLPM. Theoretical implications for personality and acculturation research and practical inferences for supporting students studying abroad are discussed.

Evaluating voice samples as a potential source of information about personality

Speech is a powerful medium through which a variety of psychologically relevant phenomena are expressed. Here we take a first step in evaluating the potential of using voice samples as non-self-report measures of personality. In particular, we examine the extent to which linguistic and vocal information extracted from semi-structured vocal samples can be used to predict conventional measures of personality. We extracted 94 linguistic features (using Linquistic Inquiry Word Count, 2015) and 272 vocal features (using pyAudioAnalysis) from 614 voice samples of at least 50 words. Using a two-stage, fully automatable machine learning pipeline we evaluated the extent to which these features predicted self-report personality scales (Big Five Inventory). For comparison purposes, we also examined the predictive performance of these voice features with respect to depression, age, and gender. Results showed that voice samples accounted for 10.67 % of the variance in personality traits on average and that the same samples could also predict depression, age, and gender. Moreover, the results reported here provide a conservative estimate of the degree to which features derived from voice samples could be used to predict personality traits and suggest a number of opportunities to optimize personality prediction and better understand how voice samples carry information about personality.

Linguistic measures of personality in group discussions

This investigation sought to find the relationships among multiple dimensions of personality and multiple features of language style. Unlike previous investigations, after controlling for such other moderators as culture and socio-demographics, the current investigation explored those dimensions of naturalistic spoken language that most closely align with communication. In groups of five to eight players, participants (N = 340) from eight international locales completed hour-long competitive games consisting of a series of ostensible missions. Composite measures of quantity, lexical diversity, sentiment, immediacy and negations were measured with an automated tool called SPLICE and with Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count. We also investigated style dynamics over the course of an interaction. We found predictors of extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, but overall fewer significant associations than prior studies, suggesting greater heterogeneity in language style in contexts entailing interactivity, conversation rather than solitary message production, oral rather than written discourse, and groups rather than dyads. Extraverts were found to maintain greater linguistic style consistency over the course of an interaction. The discussion addresses the potential for Type I error when studying the relationship between language and personality.

The role of personality beliefs and “small talk” in strategic behaviour

Humans are predisposed to forming “first impressions” about the people we encounter including impressions about their personality traits. While the relationship between personality and strategic decision-making has been widely explored, we examine the role of personality impressions in predicting strategic behaviour and devising behavioural responses. In a laboratory setting, after only 4-minutes of “small talk”, subjects developed a sense of the personality of their partners, particularly extraversion, which consequently changed their behaviour in future interactions. Subjects cooperated more in public goods games when they believed their partner to be extraverted and found it more difficult to out-guess opponents they perceived as similar to themselves in a level-k reasoning task, having engaged in conversation with them. We trace how language can generate these effects using text analysis, showing that talking more makes individuals appear extraverted and pro-social which in turn engenders pro-social behaviour in others.

Swear Word Fluency, Verbal Fluency, Vocabulary, Personality, and Drug Involvement

Abstract. Swearing is stereotypically associated with socially undesirable traits and behaviors, including limited verbal ability, disagreeable personality, and alcohol use. We sought to demonstrate that, contrary to such stereotypes, swear word fluency (i.e., ability to generate swear words) does not arise from a lack of verbal skills. We also explored whether swear word fluency might serve as an index of personality traits related to drug use. Accordingly, we conducted a preregistered study in which 266 undergraduates at a US university ( Mage = 19.36; 66.9% self-identified as women and 49.6% as White) completed measures of swear word fluency, verbal fluency (i.e., overall ability to generate words), vocabulary, Big Five traits, sensation seeking, and drug use. We observed positive associations between swear word fluency and verbal fluency, vocabulary, Openness, and Extraversion, and a negative association with Agreeableness. Moreover, swear word fluency accounted for unique variance in self-reported drug use over and above that accounted for by personality and general verbal ability. Swear word fluency might serve as one of few tasks where higher scores predict more drug involvement, justifying further work linking this measure with other aspects of personality and drug use.

Contrasting compulsive behaviour: Computerized text analysis of compulsion narratives

Those who gamble compulsively, and those who shop or buy in a compulsive manner share a number of common characteristics, stemming from similar impulse-control issues. As such, it is predicted that a lexical analysis of personal narratives of compulsion would share similarities. Using secondary data from an online mental health forum, Psychforums, the research analyzed narratives of compulsive gambling (n = 199) and compulsive buying (n = 196) using the automated text analysis tool, LIWC. The results indicated that compulsive buying narratives rated significantly higher in clout and emotional tone and significantly lower in authenticity, with no significant differences noted in analytical thinking between the two compulsion narratives. Recommendations for future research include that demographic variables be incorporated and that narratives sourced from different online platforms should be contrasted.

Who enjoys solitude? autonomous functioning (but not introversion) predicts self-determined motivation (but not preference) for solitude

Within the solitude literature, two discrete constructs reflect different perspectives on how time spent alone is motivated. Self-determined motivation for solitude reflects wanting time alone to find enjoyment and gain meaningful benefits from it, whereas preference for solitude concerns wanting time for oneself over others' company regardless of reasons for why time alone is wanted. We investigated two personality characteristics: introversion from Big-Five personality theory and dispositional autonomy from self-determination theory. In two diary studies university students completed personality measures and reported about their experiences with time spent alone over a period of seven days. Across both studies, contrary to popular belief that introverts spend time alone because they enjoy it, results showed no evidence that introversion is predictive of either preference or motivation for solitude. Dispositional autonomy-the tendency to regulate from a place of self-congruence, interest, and lack of pressure-consistently predicted self-determined motivation for solitude but was unrelated to preference for solitude. These findings provided evidence supporting the link between valuing time spent alone with individual differences in the capacity to self-regulate in choiceful and authentic way.

The Day Evaluation Q-Sort

Abstract. The Day Evaluation Q-sort (DEQ) is a measure designed to describe the day as it is experienced. In two undergraduate samples ( Ns = 472 and 302), this research explores how the day is described, and how the evaluation of the day relates to personality attributes and to time spent in various daily activities. We find that individuals tend to describe their days as generally positive and productive, and that day evaluations are related to psychological attributes (Big Five traits, affect, and well-being) and time use. Day evaluations are not simply a reflection of the activities that make up the day. Two people spending their time similarly may evaluate the day differently. The DEQ is presented as a measure of day evaluations that captures variation in the way the day is experienced. These differences relate meaningfully to individual differences and how time is spent throughout the day.

The Effects of Partner Extraversion and Agreeableness on Trust

Existing research has documented the social benefits (i.e., higher popularity and liking) of extraversion and agreeableness. Do these positive reputational consequences extend to social dilemma situations that require trust? We found that people do not trust extraverts more than introverts. Instead, people's trust decisions are guided by their partner's level of agreeableness. In a trust game (Studies 1 and 2), individuals were more likely to trust a partner who was described as agreeable (vs. disagreeable); and, in a laboratory study of work groups, participants trusted more (vs. less) agreeable group members (Study 3). Individuals anticipated others' preferences for agreeable partners and tried to come across as more agreeable, but not more extraverted, in social dilemmas (Study 4). These findings suggest that the social benefits of agreeableness (but not extraversion) extend to social interactions involving trust and highlight the importance of target personality traits in shaping trust decisions.

Getting Personal: A Deep Learning Artifact for Text-Based Measurement of Personality

Analysts, managers, and policymakers are interested in predictive analytics capable of offering better foresight. It is generally accepted that in forecasting scenarios involving organizational policies or consumer decision making, personal characteristics, including personality, may be an important predictor of downstream outcomes. The inclusion of personality features in forecasting models has been hindered by the fact that traditional measurement mechanisms are often infeasible. Text-based personality detection has garnered attention due to the public availability of digital textual traces, however state-of-the-art models proposed by IBM, Google, Facebook, and academic research are not accurate enough to be used for downstream real-world forecasting tasks. We propose a novel text-based personality measurement approach that improves detection of personality dimensions by 10–20 percentage points relative to the best existing methods developed in industry and academia. Using case studies in the finance and health domains, we show that more accurate text-based personality detection can translate into significant improvements in downstream applications such as forecasting future firm performance or predicting pandemic infection rates. Our findings have important implications for managers focused on enabling, producing, or consuming predictive analytics for enhanced agility in decision making.

Does extraversion increase following a three-hour flirt training? Exploring two training routes

Flirting situations are opportunities to behave in extraverted ways. However, it is not clear whether engaging in flirting behavior predicts extraversion. The current study explored whether extraversion increases following a 3-h flirt training and compared two training routes to flirting. A two-arm randomized pre-post design with two active conditions were used. Ninety-six adults between 18 and 49 years (67.7% women) were randomized to either: (1) a problem-oriented training strategy that aims to compensate for problems and deficits related to flirting; or (2) a strengths-oriented training strategy that capitalizes on individuals' strengths and resources. The outcome variables were assessed before and 30 days after the training. Participants in both conditions reported higher scores in flirting behavior as well as in extraversion following the trainings. The results suggest that flirt trainings are potentially interesting indirect intervention approaches to increase the expression of extraversion.

The Association Between Five Factor Model Personality Traits and Verbal and Numeric Reasoning

Five-factor model (FFM) personality traits are related to basic cognitive functions and risk of cognitive impairment in late life. The present study addresses whether FFM traits are also associated with a more complex cognitive function, reasoning, across adulthood. We used seven samples to examine the relation between personality and verbal (total N= 39,177) and numeric (total N= 76,388) reasoning. A meta-analysis indicated higher Neuroticism was associated modestly with worse performance on verbal and numeric reasoning tasks. Openness was associated with better verbal reasoning and was unrelated to numeric reasoning. Surprisingly, Extraversion was associated modestly with worse performance in both domains, and Conscientiousness was essentially unrelated to reasoning. Agreeableness was unrelated to reasoning. There was significant heterogeneity across the samples but only limited evidence for moderation by age or sex. Consistent with other cognitive domains, the results suggested that Neuroticism is related to worse performance globally, whereas Openness tends to be associated with better verbal abilities. Among the unexpected findings was the better reasoning of introverts. The pattern also suggests that the common positive association between Conscientiousness and cognition does not extend to reasoning and suggests that Conscientiousness may support healthier cognitive aging through basic cognitive functions rather than through complex functions like reasoning.

The Association Between Sociability and COVID-19 Pandemic Stress

The COVID-19 pandemic threatened our physical health, alongside our mental and social wellbeing. Social distancing requirements, which are necessary to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, increased social isolation by limiting social interactions that are an essential part of human wellbeing. In this study, we examined the stress caused by COVID-19 early on in the pandemic through the lens of sociability among a large sample of preservice educators (N = 2,183). We found that individuals who have higher sociability (including deriving joy from social interactions and using social support to manage emotions) experienced greater COVID-19 stress. This study also contributed to prior literature which has sought to relate pandemic-related stress to demographic group differences. We found no significant relationship between demographic membership (gender, race, and sexual orientation) and COVID-19 stress. This study is among the first, however, to demonstrate that vulnerability to pandemic stress varies as a function of sociability. Implications of these findings and ways people can better cope with pandemic isolation are discussed.

Fake or real news? Understanding the gratifications and personality traits of individuals sharing fake news on social media platforms

Purpose

“Fake news” or misinformation sharing using social media sites into public discourse or politics has increased dramatically, over the last few years, especially in the current COVID-19 pandemic causing concern. However, this phenomenon is inadequately researched. This study examines fake news sharing with the lens of stimulus-organism-response (SOR) theory, uses and gratification theory (UGT) and big five personality traits (BFPT) theory to understand the motivations for sharing fake news and the personality traits that do so. The stimuli in the model comprise gratifications (pass time, entertainment, socialization, information sharing and information seeking) and personality traits (agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, openness and neuroticism). The feeling of authenticating or instantly sharing news is the organism leading to sharing fake news, which forms the response in the study.

Design/methodology/approach

The conceptual model was tested by the data collected from a sample of 221 social media users in India. The data were analyzed with partial least squares structural equation modeling to determine the effects of UGT and personality traits on fake news sharing. The moderating role of the platform WhatsApp or Facebook was studied.

Findings

The results suggest that pass time, information sharing and socialization gratifications lead to instant sharing news on social media platforms. Individuals who exhibit extraversion, neuroticism and openness share news on social media platforms instantly. In contrast, agreeableness and conscientiousness personality traits lead to authentication news before sharing on the social media platform.

Originality/value

This study contributes to social media literature by identifying the user gratifications and personality traits that lead to sharing fake news on social media platforms. Furthermore, the study also sheds light on the moderating influence of the choice of the social media platform for fake news sharing.

The politics of piracy: political ideology and the usage of pirated online media

There is a lack of clarity in information systems research on which factors lead people to use or not use technologies of varying degrees of perceived legality. To address this gap, we use arguments from the information systems and political ideology literatures to theorize on the influence of individuals’ political ideologies on online media piracy. Specifically, we hypothesize that individuals with a more conservative ideology, and thus lower openness to experience and higher conscientiousness, generally engage in less online media piracy. We further hypothesize that this effect is stronger for online piracy technology that is legally ambiguous. Using clickstream data from 3873 individuals in the U.S., we find that this effect in fact exists only for online media piracy technologies that are perceived as legally ambiguous. Specifically, more conservative individuals, who typically have lower ambiguity intolerance, use (legal but ambiguously perceived) pirated streaming websites less, while there is no difference for the (clearly illegal) use of pirated file sharing websites.

Personality Analysis Using Classification on Turkish Tweets

According to the psychology literature, there is a strong correlation between the personality traits and the linguistic behavior of people. Due to increase in computer based communication, individuals express their personalities in written forms on social media. Hence, social media became a convenient resource to analyze the relationship between the personality traits and the lingusitic behaviour. Although there is a vast amount of studies on social media, only a small number of them focus on personality prediction. In this work, we aim to model the relationship between the social media messages of individuals and Big Five Personality Traits as a supervised learning problem. We use Twitter posts and user statistics for analysis. We investigated various approaches for user profile representation, explored several supervised learning techniques, and presented comparative analysis results. Our results confirm the findings of psychology literature, and we show that computational analysis of tweets using supervised learning methods can be used to determine the personality of individuals.

How Chatty Are Daddies? An Exploratory Study of Infants' Language Environments

Purpose Fathers play a critical but underresearched role in their children's cognitive and linguistic development. Focusing on two-parent families with a mother and a father, the present longitudinal study explores the amount of paternal input infants hear during the first 2 years of life, how this input changes over time, and how it relates to child volubility. We devote special attention to parentese, a near-universal style of infant-directed speech, distinguished by its higher pitch, slower tempo, and exaggerated intonation. Method We examined the daylong recordings of the same 23 infants at ages 6, 10, 14, 18, and 24 months, given English-speaking families. The infants were recorded in the presence of their parents (mother-father dyads), who were predominantly White and ranged from mid to high socioeconomic status (SES). We analyzed the effects of parent gender and child age on adult word counts and parentese, as well as the effects of maternal and paternal word counts and parentese on child vocalizations. Results On average, the infants were exposed to 46.8% fewer words and 51.9% less parentese from fathers than from mothers, even though paternal parentese grew at a 2.8-times faster rate as the infants aged. An asymmetry emerged where maternal word counts and paternal parentese predicted child vocalizations, but paternal word counts and maternal parentese did not. Conclusions While infants may hear less input from their fathers than their mothers in predominantly White, mid-to-high SES, English-speaking households, paternal parentese still plays a unique role in their linguistic development. Future research on sources of variability in child language outcomes should thus control for parental differences since parents' language can differ substantially and differentially predict child language.

Personality and Motives for Social Media Use When Physically Distanced: A Uses and Gratifications Approach

This paper explores individuals’ motives for using social media when living under ‘social distancing’ conditions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, where they were instructed to physically distance from other people. Adopting a ‘uses and gratifications’ approach, and using a previously established five-factor scale, we examine the relationship between individuals’ motives for using social media and their personality traits. Hundred and eighty-nine social media users living in the United Kingdom completed surveys assessing their motives for using social media and their personality. Our findings demonstrate that participants were generally motivated to use social media to ‘pass time’ and to ‘maintain relationships.’ Further, we find that those high in extraversion in particular use social media to ‘maintain relationships.’ By comparing our findings to previous studies where face-to-face interaction was not restricted, our findings indicate that individuals’ motives for using social media change when they are placed under physical distancing restrictions. We reflect on the potential application of our findings for others experiencing similar conditions, such as those working in remote locations, as well as the potential implications for living in a post-pandemic world with increased virtual ‘meetings’ using social media.

Personality traits relate to chronotype at both the phenotypic and genetic level

INTRODUCTION

Diurnal preferences have been linked to personality but often with mixed results. The present study examines the relationships between sleep timing (chronotype), diurnal preferences, and the Five-Factor Model of personality traits at the phenotypic and genetic level.

METHODS

Self- and informant-reports of the NEO Personality Inventory-3, self-reports of the Munich Chronotype Questionnaire, and DNA samples were available for 2,515 Estonian adults (M_age  = 45.76 years; 59% females). Genetic correlations were obtained through summary statistics of genome-wide association studies.

RESULTS

Results showed that higher Conscientiousness and lower Openness to Experience were significant predictors of earlier chronotype. At the level of facets, we found that more straightforward (A2) and excitement-seeking (E5), yet less self-disciplined (C5) people were more likely to have later chronotypes. The nuance-level Polypersonality score was correlated with chronotype at r = .28 (p < .001). Conscientiousness and Openness were genetically related with diurnal preferences. The polygenic score for morningness-eveningness significantly predicted the Polypersonality score.

CONCLUSION

Phenotypic measures of chronotype and personality showed significant associations at all three of levels of the personality hierarchy. Our findings indicate that the relationship between personality and morningness-eveningness is partly due to genetic factors. Future studies are necessary to further refine the relationship.

Swearing and coprophenomena - A multidimensional approach

Swearing, cursing, expletives - all these terms are used to describe the utterance of taboo words. Studies show that swearing makes up around 0.5 % of the daily spoken content, however, the inter-individual variability is very high. One kind of pathologic swearing is coprolalia in Tourette syndrome (TS), which describes the involuntary outburst of taboo words. Coprolalia occurs in approximately 20-30 % of all patients with TS. This review compares swearing in healthy people and coprolalia in people with TS and is the first one to develop a multidimensional framework to account for both phenomena from a similar perspective. Different research findings are embedded in one theoretical framework consisting of reasons, targets, functions/effects and influencing factors for swearing and coprolalia. Furthermore, the very limited research investigating obscene gestures and copropraxia, compulsive obscene gestures, is summarized. New research questions and gaps are brought up for swearing, obscene gestures and coprophenomena.

Best practices for Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) research: A practical guide to coding and processing EAR data

Since its introduction in 2001, the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) method has become an established and broadly used tool for the naturalistic observation of daily social behavior in clinical, health, personality, and social science research. Previous treatments of the method have focused primarily on its measurement approach (relative to other ecological assessment methods), research design considerations (e.g., sampling schemes, privacy considerations), and the properties of its data (i.e., reliability, validity, and added measurement value). However, the evolved procedures and practices related to arguably one of the most critical parts of EAR research-the coding process that converts the sampled raw ambient sounds into quantitative behavioral data for statistical analysis-so far have largely been communicated informally between EAR researchers. This article documents "best practices" for processing EAR data, which have been tested and refined in our research over the years. Our aim is to provide practical information on important topics such as the development of a coding system, the training and supervision of EAR coders, EAR data preparation and database optimization, the troubleshooting of common coding challenges, and coding considerations specific to diverse populations.