To some, blogs may not seem particularly significant, but it turns out they could provide a break through in examining the correlation between word choice and personality.
Tal Yarkoni, a psychology and neuroscience postdoctoral fellow at CU, released one of the largest studies to date about the connection between word use and personality traits, according to the Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine,
Yarkoni said he wondered about how word choice reflects personality, so he examined hundreds of blogs in order to gather information.
“I was curious about the relationship between personality and word choice,” he said. “A blog seemed like a good place to begin because many bloggers write a lot.”
His study categorized participants into the “Big Five” personality trait categories: Neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness. He then found the words that were most commonly used by people in each category.
Some bloggers believe that the categories Yarkoni used are too limited.
“I don’t know if I can fit into any of [the categories] because I’m really open with the topics that I talk about on my blog and in person,” said Connie Redfield, an avid blogger and 21-year-old junior geology and film studies major.
Other students said they believe that the categories seem to cover most personality types.
“For the most part, every blog I see is mainly in [one of the categories],” said Janie Giebelhaus, a blogger and 19-year-old freshman communication, sociology and film studies major. “My blog hopefully is in the agreeable category.”
According to the data, neurotic bloggers are more likely to use words like, “awful,” “depressing” and “irony,” while extraverted bloggers used words like, “drinks,” “restaurants,” and “dancing.”
This is not the first study conducted that identifies a relationship between word choice and personality traits, but it is different in it’s scope and approach. Yarkoni’s study differed from previous studies conducted because it examined such a large sample of people and words. It examined 694 blogs, with an average of 115,423 words each, and spanning over an average period of 23.9 months.
He said that his results further proved what previous studies had already concluded, and that his work was more of a method-study.
“It was a way to develop previously used methods on a larger scale,” Yarkoni said.
Many previous studies featured category-based word analysis, meaning that the studies were not looking at associations between personality traits and individual words, but rather personality and categories of many words. The study looked at words on the categorical level, but also looked at individual words.
Yarkoni said he had great amounts of data, and was able to not only find individual words for the “Big Five” personality traits, but even break those traits down and find correlations between words and specific emotions like anxiety, anger and sympathy.
Ian Bruns, a non-blogger and 19-year-old freshman computer science major said he agrees with Yarkoni’s theory that blogs are a good place to study word choice.
“It is unlikely that you can completely determine a person’s personality by examining their blogs, however it is a good place to start,” Bruns said. “A blog is like a diary with some details left out.”
Redfield said she believes that studying personality through blogs is a reflection of modern expressions of one’s personal life.
“People don’t keep journals anymore, they keep public blogs,” Redfield said. “It is a sign of the times and a sign of society that we put so much of our personal life online.”
Yarkoni said he recognized the significance of the way in which word choice reflects personality traits, however he acknowledged that his study is based on basic relationships.
“This study was not about telling us what the average person cannot infer about personality,” Yarkoni said. “It is about identifying relations between words and personality.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Chelsea Barrett at Chelsea.barrett@colorado.edu.
