Personality and motivations associated with Facebook use

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2008.12.024Get rights and content

Abstract

Facebook is quickly becoming one of the most popular tools for social communication. However, Facebook is somewhat different from other Social Networking Sites as it demonstrates an offline-to-online trend; that is, the majority of Facebook Friends are met offline and then added later. The present research investigated how the Five-Factor Model of personality relates to Facebook use. Despite some expected trends regarding Extraversion and Openness to Experience, results indicated that personality factors were not as influential as previous literature would suggest. The results also indicated that a motivation to communicate was influential in terms of Facebook use. It is suggested that different motivations may be influential in the decision to use tools such as Facebook, especially when individual functions of Facebook are being considered.

Section snippets

Personality correlates and competency factors associated with Facebook use

The purpose of the present study was to examine the nature of Facebook use in an undergraduate sample and explore the personality and competency factors that influence its use. Assessment of personality over the past two decades has revealed that personality can be characterized by a series of five dimensions (McCrae, 1992). This has resulted in a Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality that has come to pervade personality research. Nonetheless, some test developers have created personality

Participants

Ninety-seven students at a university in Southwestern Ontario participated in the present study. The sample was comprised of 15 men and 82 women, having an average age of 21.69 years (SD = 5.40). Students were compensated with partial course credit for their participation.

Materials

All study materials were posted online. The Facebook Questionnaire was a 28-item questionnaire developed by the authors (see Appendix A). It contained three categories of items assessing basic use of Facebook, attitudes

Results

Consistent with previous research (e.g., Ellison et al., 2007), 85% of the participants in this study reported having a Facebook account, with the majority (79%) reporting that they spent between 10 and 60 min on Facebook daily. Because of the large proportion of female participants in the study, it was not feasible to examine gender differences in terms of Facebook use or personality variables.

In order to investigate personality features, groups were created by dividing each personality domain

Discussion

The purpose of the present study was to examine the influence of personality and competency factors on Facebook use. Consistent with previous research, our findings indicated that personality variables were associated with some aspects of Facebook use. For example, individuals high on the trait of Extraversion were found to belong to significantly more Facebook groups. Since extraverts are more likely to engage in social activities (Costa and McCrae, 1992a, Costa and McCrae, 1992b), it is

References (23)

  • P.T. Costa et al.

    Normal personality assessment in clinical practice: The NEO personality inventory

    Psychological Assessment

    (1992)
  • Cited by (1227)

    • Technology acceptance and self-enhancement in social media

      2024, Multimedia Tools and Applications
    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text