Abstract
This chapter will explore how personality influences our online commenting behaviours. Drawing on the Big Five Inventory, it will outline the particular characters that operate in the online space, their motivations for participation and their propensity for making particular types of comments. Understanding the role of personality in commenting behaviour also sheds light on some of the specific measures the institutions that control commenting platforms can take to mitigate “anti-social” commenting behaviour through specific moderation policies and modifications to user interfaces.
Keywords
- Personality
- Commenting
- Big Five Inventory (BFI)
- Five Factor Model
- User interfaces
- Moderation policies
- Trolling
- Online participation
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.
Buying options
References
Amichai-Hamburger, Yair, and Elisheva Ben-Artzi. 2003. Loneliness and Internet Use. Computers in Human Behavior 19 (1): 71–80.
Amichai-Hamburger, Yair, Galit Wainapel, and Shaul Fox. 2002. ‘On the Internet No One Knows I’m an Introvert’: Extroversion, Neuroticism, and Internet Interaction. Cyberpsychology & Behavior 5 (2): 125–128.
Amichai-Hamburger, Yair, Naama Lamdan, Rinat Madiel, and Tsahi Hayat. 2008. Personality Characteristics of Wikipedia Members. CyberPsychology & Behavior 11 (6): 679–681.
Amichai-Hamburger, Yair, Tali Gazit, Judit Bar-Ilan, Oren Perez, Noa Aharony, Jenny Bronstein, and Talia Sarah Dyne. 2016. Psychological Factors Behind the Lack of Participation in Online Discussions. Computers in Human Behavior 55: 268–277.
Amiel, Tel, and Stephanie Lee Sargent. 2004. Individual Differences in Internet Usage Motives. Computers in Human Behavior 20 (6): 711–726.
Andreassen, Cecilie Schou, Mark D. Griffiths, Siri Renate Gjertsen, Elfrid Krossbakken, Siri Kvam, and Ståle Pallesen. 2013. The Relationships Between Behavioral Addictions and the Five-Factor Model of Personality. Journal of Behavioral Addictions 2 (2): 90–99.
Anolli, Luigi, Daniela Villani, and Giuseppe Riva. 2005. Personality of People Using Chat: An On-Line Research. CyberPsychology & Behavior 8 (1): 89–95.
Bargh, John A., Katelyn Y.A. McKenna, and Grainne M. Fitzsimons. 2002. Can You See the Real Me? Activation and Expression of the ‘True Self’ on the Internet. Journal of Social Issues 58 (1): 33–48.
Barnes, Renee. 2014. The ‘Ecology of Participation’ a Study of Audience Engagement on Alternative Journalism Websites. Digital Journalism 2 (4): 542–557.
Barnes, Renee, Doug Mahar, Wendell Cockshaw, and Ides Wong. forthcoming. Personality and online news commenting behaviours: Uncovering the characteristics of those below the line. Media International Australia.
Blanchard, Anita L., and M. Lynne Markus. 2002. Sense of Virtual Community-Maintaining the Experience of Belonging. System Sciences, 2002. HICSS. Proceedings of the 35th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Big Island.
Blau, Ina, and Azy Barak. 2012. How Do Personality, Synchronous Media, and Discussion Topic Affect Participation? Educational Technology & Society 15 (2): 12–24.
Blumer, Tim, and Nicola Döring. 2012. Are We the Same Online? The Expression of the Five Factor Personality Traits on the Computer and the Internet. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace 6 (3): np.
Brandtzæg, Petter Bae. 2012. Social Networking Sites: Their Users and Social Implications—A Longitudinal Study. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 17 (4): 467–488. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2012.01580.x.
Braun, Joshua A. 2015. News Programs: Designing MSNBC. com’s Online Interfaces. Journalism 16 (1): 27–43.
Buckels, Erin E., Paul D. Trapnell, and Delroy L. Paulhus. 2014. Trolls Just Want to Have Fun. Personality and Individual Differences 67: 97–102.
Carr, Nicholas. 2011. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. New York: WW Norton & Company.
Chung, Deborah S., and Chan Yun Yoo. 2008. Audience Motivations for Using Interactive Features: Distinguishing Use of Different Types of Interactivity on an Online Newspaper. Mass Communication and Society 11 (4): 375–397.
Coe, Kevin, Kate Kenski, and Stephen A. Rains. 2014. Online and Uncivil? Patterns and Determinants of Incivility in Newspaper Website Comments. Journal of Communication 64 (4): 658–679.
Correa, Teresa, Amber Willard Hinsley, and Homero Gil De Zuniga. 2010. Who Interacts on the Web?: The Intersection of Users’ Personality and Social Media Use. Computers in Human Behavior 26 (2): 247–253.
Costa, Paul T., and Robert R. McCrae. 1992. Normal Personality Assessment in Clinical Practice: The NEO Personality Inventory. Psychological Assessment 4 (1): 5.
Cullen, Rowena, and Sarah Morse. 2011. Who’s Contributing: Do Personality Traits Influence the Level and Type of Participation in Online Communities? System Sciences (HICSS) 2011 44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Big Island.
Curry, Mila. 2008. Personality and the News: The Five-Factor Model and Headline Preferences. Florida Atlantic University.
de Souza, Clarisse Sieckenius, and Jenny Preece. 2004. A Framework for Analyzing and Understanding Online Communities. Interacting with Computers 16 (3): 579–610.
Devaraj, Sarv, Robert F. Easley, and J. Michael Crant. 2008. Research Note—How Does Personality Matter? Relating the Five-Factor Model to Technology Acceptance and Use. Information Systems Research 19 (1): 93–105.
Diakopoulos, Nicholas, and Mor Naaman. 2011. Towards Quality Discourse in Online News Comments. Proceedings of the ACM 2011 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work. Hangzhou, China.
Fullwood, Chris, Wendy Nicholls, and Rumbidzai Makichi. 2015. We’ve Got Something for Everyone: How Individual Differences Predict Different Blogging Motivations. New Media & Society 17 (9): 1583–1600.
Gerber, Alan S., Gregory A. Huber, David Doherty, and Conor M. Dowling. 2011. The Big Five Personality Traits in the Political Arena. Annual Review of Political Science 14: 265–287.
Gill, Alastair J., Scott Nowson, and Jon Oberlander. 2009. What Are They Blogging About? Personality, Topic and Motivation in Blogs. ICWSM.
Greven, Corina, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Adriane Arteche, and Adrian Furnham. 2008. A Hierarchical Integration of Dispositional Determinants of General Health in Students: The Big Five, Trait Emotional Intelligence and Humour Styles. Personality and Individual Differences 44 (7): 1562–1573.
Guadagno, Rosanna E., Bradley M. Okdie, and Cassie A. Eno. 2008. Who Blogs? Personality Predictors of Blogging. Computers in Human Behavior 24 (5): 1993–2004.
Ha, Shang E., Seokho Kim, and Hee Jo Se. 2013. Personality Traits and Political Participation: Evidence from South Korea. Political Psychology 34 (4): 511–532.
Hamburger, Yair Amichai, and Elisheva Ben-Artzi. 2000. The Relationship Between Extraversion and Neuroticism and the Different Uses of the Internet. Computers in Human Behavior 16 (4): 441–449.
Heller, Daniel, Timothy A. Judge, and David Watson. 2002. The Confounding Role of Personality and Trait Affectivity in the Relationship Between Job and Life Satisfaction. Journal of Organizational Behavior 23 (7): 815–835.
Hughes, David John, Moss Rowe, Mark Batey, and Andrew Lee. 2012. A Tale of Two Sites: Twitter vs. Facebook and the Personality Predictors of Social Media Usage. Computers in Human Behavior 28 (2): 561–569.
Immordino-Yang, Mary Helen, Joanna A. Christodoulou, and Vanessa Singh. 2012. Rest Is Not Idleness: Implications of the Brain’s Default Mode for Human Development and Education. Perspectives on Psychological Science 7 (4): 352–364.
Jadin, Tanja, Timo Gnambs, and Bernad Batinic. 2013. Personality Traits and Knowledge Sharing in Online Communities. Computers in Human Behavior 29 (1): 210–216.
John, Oliver P., and Sanjay Srivastava. 1999. The Big Five Trait Taxonomy: History, Measurement, and Theoretical Perspectives. In Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research, ed. L.A. Persin and O.P. John, 102–138. New York: Guilford.
Jordan, Gerald, Megan Pope, Patrick Wallis, and Srividya Iyer. 2015. The Relationship Between Openness to Experience and Willingness to Engage in Online Political Participation Is Influenced by News Consumption. Social Science Computer Review 33 (2): 181–197.
Juvonen, Jaana, and Elisheva F. Gross. 2008. Extending the School Grounds?—Bullying Experiences in Cyberspace. Journal of School Health 78 (9): 496–505.
Kiesler, Sara, Robert Kraut, Paul Resnick, and Aniket Kittur. 2012. Regulating Behavior in Online Communities. In Building Successful Online Communities: Evidence-Based Social Design, ed. Robert Kraut and Paul Resnick, 125–178. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Ksiazek, Thomas B. 2015. Civil Interactivity: How News Organizations’ Commenting Policies Explain Civility and Hostility in User Comments. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 59 (4): 556–573.
Landers, Richard N., and John W. Lounsbury. 2006. An Investigation of Big Five and Narrow Personality Traits in Relation to Internet Usage. Computers in Human Behavior 22 (2): 283–293.
Lin, Hsiu-Fen. 2008. Determinants of Successful Virtual Communities: Contributions from System Characteristics and Social Factors. Information & Management 45 (8): 522–527.
Ling, Kimberly, Gerard Beenen, Pamela Ludford, Xiaoqing Wang, Klarissa Chang, Xin Li, Dan Cosley, Dan Frankowski, Loren Terveen, and Mamunur Rashid Al. 2005. Using Social Psychology to Motivate Contributions to Online Communities. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 10 (4). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2005.tb00273.x.
Matzler, Kurt, Birgit Renzl, Julia Müller, Stephan Herting, and Todd A. Mooradian. 2008. Personality Traits and Knowledge Sharing. Journal of Economic Psychology 29 (3): 301–313.
McCrae, Robert R., and Paul T. Costa. 2003. Personality in Adulthood: A Five-Factor Theory Perspective. New York: Guilford Press.
McCrae, Robert R., and Oliver P. John. 1992. An Introduction to the Five-Factor Model and Its Applications. Journal of Personality 60 (2): 175–215.
McCrae, Robert R., and Antonio Terracciano. 2008. The Five-Factor Model and Its Correlates in Individuals and Cultures. In Multilevel Analysis of Individuals and Cultures, ed. F.J.R. van de Vijver, D.A. van Hemert, and Y.H. Poortinga, 249–283. Mahwah: Erlbaum.
McElroy, James C., Anthony R. Hendrickson, Anthony M. Townsend, and Samuel M. DeMarie. 2007. Dispositional Factors in Internet Use: Personality Versus Cognitive Style. MIS Quarterly 31: 809–820.
McKenna, Katelyn Y.A., and John A. Bargh. 2000. Plan 9 from Cyberspace: The Implications of the Internet for Personality and Social Psychology. Personality and Social Psychology Review 4 (1): 57–75.
McLure Wasko, M., and Samer Faraj. 2000. ‘It Is What One Does’: Why People Participate and Help Others in Electronic Communities of Practice. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems 9 (2): 155–173.
Meyer, Hans K., and Michael Clay Carey. 2014. In Moderation: Examining How Journalists’ Attitudes Toward Online Comments Affect the Creation of Community. Journalism Practice 8 (2): 213–228.
Mooradian, Todd, Birgit Renzl, and Kurt Matzler. 2006. Who Trusts? Personality, Trust and Knowledge Sharing. Management Learning 37 (4): 523–540.
Naab, Teresa K., Anja Kalch, and Tino G.K. Meitz. 2016. Flagging Uncivil User Comments: Effects of Intervention Information, Type of Victim, and Response Comments on Bystander Behavior. New Media & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444816670923.
Orchard, Lisa J., and Chris Fullwood. 2010. Current Perspectives on Personality and Internet Use. Social Science Computer Review 28 (2): 155–169.
Phillips, James G., Sarah Butt, and Alex Blaszczynski. 2006. Personality and Self-Reported Use of Mobile Phones for Games. CyberPsychology & Behavior 9 (6): 753–758.
Quintelier, Ellen, and Yannis Theocharis. 2013. Online Political Engagement, Facebook, and Personality Traits. Social Science Computer Review 31 (3): 280–290.
Realo, Anu, Andra Siibak, and Veronika Kalmus. 2011. Motives for Internet Use and Their Relationships with Personality Traits and Socio-Demographic Factors. Trames 15 (4): 385–403.
Reich, Zvi. 2011. User Comments: The Transformation of Participatory Space. In Participatory Journalism: Guarding Open Gates at Online Newspapers, ed. Jane B. Singer, David Domingo, Ari Heinonen, Alfred Hermida, Steve Paulussen, Thorsten Quandt, Zvi Reich, and Marina Vujnovic, 96–117. West Sussex: Wiley.
Ridings, Catherine M., and David Gefen. 2004. Virtual Community Attraction: Why People Hang Out Online. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 10 (1). Retrieved December 23, 2016 from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue1/ridings_gefen.html.
Roberts, Brent W., and Wendy F. DelVecchio. 2000. The Rank-Order Consistency of Personality Traits from Childhood to Old Age: A Quantitative Review of Longitudinal Studies. Psychological Bulletin 126 (1): 3.
Rosen, Larry D., Kate Whaling, Sam Rab, L. Mark Carrier, and Nancy A. Cheever. 2013. Is Facebook Creating ‘iDisorders’? The Link Between Clinical Symptoms of Psychiatric Disorders and Technology Use, Attitudes and Anxiety. Computers in Human Behavior 29 (3): 1243–1254.
Ross, Craig, Emily S. Orr, Mia Sisic, Jaime M. Arseneault, Mary G. Simmering, and R. Robert Orr. 2009. Personality and Motivations Associated with Facebook Use. Computers in Human Behavior 25 (2): 578–586.
Ruiz, Carlos, David Domingo, Josep Lluís Micó, Javier Díaz-Noci, Koldo Meso, and Pere Masip. 2011. Public Sphere 2.0? The Democratic Qualities of Citizen Debates in Online Newspapers. The International Journal of Press/Politics 16 (4): 463–487.
Russo, Silvia, and Erik Amnå. 2016. The Personality Divide: Do Personality Traits Differentially Predict Online Political Engagement? Social Science Computer Review 34 (3): 259–277.
Ryan, Tracii, and Sophia Xenos. 2011. Who Uses Facebook? An Investigation into the Relationship Between the Big Five, Shyness, Narcissism, Loneliness, and Facebook Usage. Computers in Human Behavior 27 (5): 1658–1664.
Springer, Nina, Ines Engelmann, and Christian Pfaffinger. 2015. User Comments: Motives and Inhibitors to Write and Read. Information, Communication & Society 18 (7): 798–815.
Suler, John. 2004. The Online Disinhibition Effect. Cyberpsychology & Behavior 7 (3): 321–326.
Tan, Wee-Kheng, and Cheng-Yi Yang. 2014. Internet Applications Use and Personality. Telematics and Informatics 31 (1): 27–38.
Terracciano, Antonio, and Robert R. McCrae. 2006. Cross-cultural Studies of Personality Ttraits and Their Relevance to Psychiatry. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences 15 (3): 176–184.
Tuten, Tracy L., and Michael Bosnjak. 2001. Understanding Differences in Web Usage: The Role of Need for Cognition and the Five Factor Model of Personality. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal 29 (4): 391–398.
van Dijck, José. 2009. Users Like You? Theorizing Agency in User-Generated Content. Media, Culture & Society 31 (1): 41–58.
Williams, John E., and Deborah L. Best. 1990. Sex and Psyche: Gender and Self Viewed Cross-culturally. Newbury Park: Sage.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Barnes, R. (2018). A Neurotic Extravert with a Pinch of Conscientiousness? How Personality Informs Commenting Behaviours. In: Uncovering Online Commenting Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70235-3_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70235-3_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-70234-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-70235-3
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)