Social network site use and Big Five personality traits: A meta-analysis

an article by Chiungjung Huang (University of Education, Changhua, Taiwan) published in Computers in Human Behavior Volume 97 (August 2019)

Highlights

• The relations between social network site use and Big Five traits were weak or nil.
• The moderator effects of study country and participant gender were mixed.
• Effects of the rest of moderators were not supported.

Abstract

This meta-analysis summarized the relations between social network site use and neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness.

Sixty-one articles comprising 67 independent samples (N = 22,899 participants) were identified.

The overall correlations of social network site use with neuroticism (= 0.08) and extraversion (= 0.09) were about positively small, while conscientiousness had a negative and quite small correlation with social network site use with  = −0.04. Openness and agreeableness were not significantly correlated with social network site use with  = −0.01. The effects of most moderators, including publication outlet, site participants spent time, scale of time spent, indicator of social network site use, Big Five measure, and participant age were not significant.

In contrast, the effects of country where the study was conducted and participant gender were mixed.

I am unsure as to what this tells me – if anything useful.

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The influence of personality traits and social networks on the self-disclosure behavior of social network site users

an article by Xi Chen, Yin Pan and Bin Guo (Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China) published in Internet Research Volume 26 Issue 3 (2016)

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to determine the influence and interaction of social networks and personality traits on the self-disclosure behavior of social network site (SNS) users. According to social capital theory and the Big Five personality model, the authors hypothesized that social capital factors would affect the accuracy and amount of self-disclosure behavior and that personality traits would moderate this effect.

Design/methodology/approach
A survey was conducted to collect data from 207 SNS users. The questionnaire was administered in university classrooms and libraries and via e-mail. The measurement model and structural model were examined by using LISREL 8.8 and SmartPLS 2.0.

Findings
Based on the path analysis, the authors identified several interesting patterns to explain self-disclosure behavior on SNSs. First, the centrality of SNS users has a positive effect on their amount of self-disclosure. Moreover, people who are more extroverted disclose personal information that is more accurate with the level of the cognitive dimension held constant and disclose a greater amount of personal information with the level of the structural dimension held constant. From a practical perspective, the results may provide useful insight for companies operating SNSs.

Originality/value
This study analyzed the influence of social capital factors on SNS users’ self-disclosure, as well as the interactions between personality and social capital factors. Specifically, the authors examined six important variables of social capital divided into three dimensions. This research complements current research on SNSs by focusing on SNS users’ motivation to disclose self-related information in addition to information sharing.

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