Personality and location-based social networks

Chorley, Martin J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8744-260X, Whitaker, Roger M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8473-1913 and Allen, Stuart M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1776-7489 2015. Personality and location-based social networks. Computers in Human Behavior 46 , pp. 45-56. 10.1016/j.chb.2014.12.038

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Abstract

Location-based social networks (LBSNs) are a recent phenomenon for sharing a presence at everyday locations with others and have the potential to give new insights into human behaviour. To date, due to barriers in data collection, there has been little research into how our personality relates to the categories of place that we visit. Using the Foursquare LBSN, we have released a web-based participatory application that examines the personality characteristics and checkin behaviour of volunteer Foursquare users. Over a four-month period, we examine the behaviour and the “Big Five” personality traits of 174 anonymous users who had collectively checked in 487,396 times at 119,746 venues. Significant correlations are found for Conscientiousness, Openness and Neuroticism. In contrast to some previous findings about online social networks, Conscientiousness is positively correlated with LBSN usage. Openness correlates mainly with location-based variables (average distance between venues visited, venue popularity, number of checkins at sociable venues). For Neuroticism, further negative correlations are found (number of venues visited, number of sociable venues visited). No correlations are found for the other personality traits, which is surprising for Extroversion. The study concludes that personality traits help to explain individual differences in LBSN usage and the type of places visited.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Computer Science & Informatics Systems Immunity Research Institute (SIURI)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences > HM Sociology Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA76 Computer software
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Social network; Location-based social network; Personality; Foursquare
Additional Information:	This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	0747-5632
Funders:	EPSRC Doctoral Award Fellowship., EU FP7 Future Emerging Technologies RECOGNITION project.
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Date of Acceptance:	21 December 2014
Last Modified:	04 May 2023 00:24
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/69623

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