Each personality trait has a specific type of profile picture. To find out which of the ‘big five’ personality traits a person fell in to, a team of researchers analysed 66,000 Twitter users’ tweets, as well as surveying a further 434.
The character assessment was done for a paper called ‘Analyzing Personality through Social Media Profile Picture Choice’ and carried out by the University of Pennsylvania.
The findings of the survey as well as the Tweets were then cross-referenced with users’ profile pictures to get a clearer picture of their natures. and Here is what they uncovered.
Extroverts: Characterised by their engagement in the world around them, extroverts are likely to have colourful profile pictures, with other people featuring in them.
But however much fun they seem to be having in their picture, extroverts ranked low for the quality of image.
They also like to project a youthful image according to the study which states:
“Different from all other personalities, extroversion is negatively correlated with the age of the presenting faces, which means that users either appear younger in their profiles or are photographed with other young(er) people.”
Neurotics: In contrast to the extroverts of social media, people with neurotic tendencies take a very different type of image. Associated with experiencing negative emotions and emotional instability, neurotics “display simple, uncolourful images with negative color emotions.”
Not only this. They are far more likely to obscure their faces with reading glasses, or use an inanimate object, or an animal.
Openness: According to the study, the lucky people who fell into this category take the best pictures.
However, they were also the most likely to have photos lacking in colour and displaying more negative emotions.
Non-conformists by nature, there were similarities between them neurotics (using / hiding behind reading glasses), though their ‘openness’ covered both intellect and experience.
Agreeable sorts: Perhaps somewhat unsurprisingly, those who were found to have agreeable personalities sported bright, colourful profile pictures.
It’s a trait defined “by social harmony and cooperation” and as such, users with this quality tend to have profile pictures with other faces in them.
But while their photos are smiling, joyous and positive, they’re not necessarily the most aesthetically pleasing:
“Their pictures are cluttered as opposed to simple.”
As the study states, “Conscientiousness is the personality trait associated with orderliness, planned behavior and self-discipline.”
Conscientious people are a happy lot
With this in mind, this image type is often characterised by “one good face” and are more colorful, natural and bright than those of other traits.
The most expressive bunch, conscientious types display give off smiling, joyful vibes – possibly because they know they’re ‘expected’ to be happy in their profile picture.
What your profile picture says about your personality: A 2016 study of 66,000 Twitter users found significant differences in profile picture choice between personality traits, with agreeable and conscientious users displaying more positive emotions in their profile pictures, while users high in openness prefer more aesthetic photos.
This further shows that even without noticing, our profile pictures can say a lot about who we are – and one person exploring digital identities and what they say about our personalities is life coach Francesca Tighinean.
The popular TikToker, who has over 880,000 followers, is known for her psychology tricks on how to subtly and sneakily get others to like you, read people’s body language, and much more – and this time, she broke down what someone’s profile picture can say about them.
In one of her videos, the City, University of London graduate broke down four ways your profile picture can say something about your personality, starting with extroverts, who she says tend to have very colourful pictures where “they’re surrounded by lots of people”.
In the clip, Tighinean outlines that “very sexy pictures can signify that the person has an inferiority complex”.
She explains that this is where people feel “they need to be more expressive or show more in order to compensate because they don’t feel good enough.”
The UK-based life coach adds that constantly changing your profile picture can indicate that the person doesn’t have “a strong identity and is pretty insecure”.
Using a picture with your partner as your profile photo is another thing highlighted by Tighinean, which she says signifies that the person sees their partner as part of their identity. “Also, people with anxious attachment tend to post more couple pictures than people with avoidant attachment,” she says.
The video has racked over 369,000 views and 40,000 likes, with many commenting on how this applied to them.
One person wrote: “This is pretty accurate because I’ve been all of these at one point in my life.”
Another said: “Ouch on the third one. Too accurate.”
A third person commented: “I can definitely relate to the couple photo. My partner is an important part of me so I feel happy to have that as my profile and for people to know.”
Despite the number of comments sharing how they related to Tighinean’s insight, some did disagree, with one social media user writing: “I change my profile picture frequently not because I’m insecure but because I get bored easily with the pic.”
Another wrote: “I’m the second, but that’s just because I’m vain and think I look good.”
Whether you agree or disagree, it’s safe to say that we might all be staring at profile pictures a little bit longer in future. (STYLIST)