Personality Traits and User Behavior

Psychologists and human resources personnel have used personality profiling as a predictor of human behavior in various environments for many decades. Knowing the personality traits of a particular individual allows management to tailor an environment ideally suited for an individual, attempting to maximize a person's productivity and job satisfaction. Measurements of personality are classically achieved through a self-reporting survey. This method has a potential inaccuracy due to its lack of objectivity and a bias due to cultural influences. This research explores the relationships between specific computer user behavior patterns and personality profiles. The results may provide a partial map between personality profile traits and computer user behavior.

In an attempt to discover such correlations, forty-five fraternity and sorority students from Texas A&M University were selected to participate in a personality survey and three computer based tests. One test measured the subject's perceptive abilities, another measured their decision-making requirements, and a third measured their methods employed in organizing a task.

The results show conclusively that some personality profile traits do influence how people visually interpret information presented on a computer screen. Individuals who exhibit high conscientiousness or agreeableness scores on a personality assessment survey take less time to find an icon among a collection during an icon search test.

However, the results also show a significantly large variability in individuals, indicating that many other factors may influence attempts to measure an individual's personality traits. This indicates that the tests presented in this study, even though they show that behavior is related to personality traits, cannot be used as diagnostic tools. Further research will be required to obtain that goal.