Facebook status can say a lot about personalities, study says

Lots of friends posting about their children, their relationships, their many accomplishments on Facebook? Those status updates can say a lot about your friends' personalities, according to a recent study that also revealed how to avoid posting things that "annoy more than they entertain."

The "Big Five" personalities can be found in different types of Facebook statuses, and each of these personalities use social media for different reasons, according to researchers from Brunel University in London.

In the study, 555 Facebook users responded to questions about these personality types, self-esteem, narcissism, motives for using Facebook and their frequency of updating their Facebook status on different topics.

"According to the 'Big Five' model of personality, individuals vary in terms of extraversion, neuroticism, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness," the researchers wrote.

Results varied for each personality type:

• Participants low in self-esteem were more likely to update about their romantic partners and love life, with researchers saying "it's 'reasonable' to see the move as a way to 'claim' their relationship," reported Newser.
• Those high in conscientiousness were more likely to update and share about their children.
• Those open to experience personalities posted about intellectual topics, in connection with their consistent use of Facebook for information sharing, the study found.
• Narcissists shared their accomplishments, as well as their diet and exercise routine; they were also found to receive a greater number of likes and comments on updates, according to their own personal reports on Facebook use.
• Extroverts were found to regularly update on their social activities and everyday life, "which was motivated by their use of Facebook to communicate and connect with others," the study found.

Of the 555 study participants, all of which resided in the U.S., 57 percent reported that they would check Facebook on a daily basis and spent an average of 107.95 minutes a day actively using it. Sixty-five percent were currently involved in a romantic relationship of some kind and 34 percent had at least one child.

Another purpose of the study was to look into the number of likes and comments certain personalities and posts received on Facebook. Updating on social activities, everyday life and accomplishments were positively associated with the number of likes and comments received, but sharing intellectual topics was negatively associated.

"Although our results suggest that narcissists' bragging pays off because they receive more likes and comments to their status updates, it could be that their Facebook friends politely offer support while secretly disliking such egotistical displays," said Tara Marshall, one of the researchers, in a press release on the study.

Though narcissists were found to receive the most likes and comments on their status updates, one of the limitations of the study was that it relied entirely on the participants' reports of their Facebook use, meaning some of the reports may not have been accurate.

"Taken together, these results help to explain why some Facebook friends write status updates about the party they went to on the weekend whereas others write about a book they just read or about their job promotion," the researchers wrote. "It is important to understand why people write about certain topics on Facebook insofar as the response they receive may be socially rewarding or exclusionary."

Email: mmorgan@deseretnews.com, Twitter: mandy_morg