Abstract: Twitter is one of the world’s most popular social networking sites, yet gaps remain in our knowledge about the psychology of its users. The current studies sought to fill these gaps by examining whether the Big Five and Dark Triad personality traits predicted differences between Twitter users and Facebook-only users, motives for using Twitter, the frequency of tweeting about 4 topics—intellectual pursuits, personal achievements, diet/exercise, and social activities—and how much they liked to read tweets about these topics. Study 1 found that Twitter users (N = 346) were higher in openness (i.e., intellect and creativity) than Facebook-only users (N = 268). In Study 2, a preregistered replication, Twitter users (N = 255) were not only higher in openness than Facebook-only users (N = 248), but they were also more Machiavellian. In both studies, Twitter users who were higher in openness were more strongly motivated to use Twitter for career promotion, and in turn, they tweeted more frequently and most liked to read tweets about intellectual pursuits. Narcissists were more strongly motivated to use Twitter for career promotion, social connection, and attention-seeking, and in turn, they tweeted more frequently and most liked to read tweets about personal achievements and diet/exercise. On average, participants most liked to read tweets about intellectual pursuits and least liked tweets about diet/exercise. We discuss the implications of these findings for tailoring one’s tweets to retain followers and for drawing the boundary conditions when extrapolating from Twitter-based “big data” to larger populations.
Public Policy Relevance Statement: Twitter users significantly differed in their personality traits from Facebook-only users, suggesting that social scientists take caution when generalizing from Twitter-based “big data” to larger populations. Our finding that Twitter particularly attracts open-minded individuals who wish to advance their careers through tweeting about intellectual topics has relevance for not only individuals wishing to maximize their use of social media but also Twitter’s marketing and retention strategies.
KEYWORDS: Twitter, Facebook, social media, Big Five personality traits, Dark Triad
General Discussion
This research is the first to examine the Big Five and Dark Triad traits as simultaneous predictors of the likelihood of using Twitter versus Facebook-only, motives for using Twitter, frequency of tweeting about and likability of various topics, and the number of likes/retweets typically received. Our results confirmed that there does indeed appear to be something unique about people who use Twitter rather than just Facebook: They are higher in openness and Machiavellianism. We review these findings in more detail next, and discuss the implications for enhancing users’ experience of Twitter and the extent to which social scientists may generalize from Twitter data to larger populations.
Openness
We found, in both studies, that openness was positively associated with the likelihood of being a Twitter user, with using Twitter for career promotion and, in turn, with tweeting more frequently about intellectual topics. Highly open individuals, who are often entrepreneurial (Leutner, Ahmetoglu, Akhtar, & Chamorro-Premuzic, 2014) and pursuing scientific or artistic careers (Feist, 1998), may be particularly attracted to Twitter because it allows them to share their creative output, keep up-to-date on the latest work in their field, and network with colleagues. Indeed, almost half of scientists use social media to exchange research findings (Rainie, Funk, & Anderson, 2015). Surprisingly, we did not find that highly open individuals were more strongly motivated to use Twitter for information-seeking, as they tend to be in their use of Facebook (Marshall et al., 2015). Further research, with larger and more diverse samples, will need to confirm that highly open individuals are indeed attracted to Twitter, specifically for the career opportunities it affords rather than for its more general use as a tool for seeking and sharing information.
Extraversion
Extraverts tweeted more often about their social activities and everyday life in Study 1, but this finding was not replicated in Study 2. Moreover, extraverts were not more strongly motivated to use Twitter for social connection in either study, suggesting that, despite some of the social affordances Twitter provides (Chen, 2011), extraverts may still prefer to use other social media sites like Facebook for socializing (Hughes et al., 2012).
Narcissism
In both studies, narcissism was more strongly associated with the various motives for using Twitter and with tweeting about more topics than any other personality trait. Nonetheless, narcissists were not any more likely to use Twitter than Facebook-only, suggesting that Twitter’s affordances—particularly the potential to gain admiration from weak-tie contacts—may not be sufficiently alluring to narcissists. Still, the present studies confirmed several hypotheses. First, narcissists’ greater frequency of tweeting about personal achievements was motivated by their use of Twitter for career promotion (Studies 1 and 2) and attention-seeking (Study 2). Unexpectedly, it was also motivated by their use of Twitter for social connection (Studies 1 and 2), suggesting that narcissists may brag about their accomplishments not only for self-promotion but also to communicate with and feel closer to others. Perhaps they view these tweets simply as a way of sharing good news—a capitalization attempt that may enhance friendship quality (Demir, Doğan, & Procsal, 2013). Narcissists’ greater use of Twitter for social connection also motivated their more frequent tweets about their social activities and everyday life (Study 1), consistent with findings that narcissists’ tweets are more likely to refer to friends (Sumner et al., 2012) and everyday life (Preotiuc-Pietro et al., 2017).
Nevertheless, narcissists’ tweets about social activities were also motivated by their use of Twitter for attention-seeking, suggesting that their motives for posting such tweets may not be entirely prosocial; they may also be seeking social status and admiration. Indeed, narcissists may use social media for building social capital and for social grooming, especially if it enables them to take advantage of others (Garcia & Sikström, 2014). And if social capital and reward is embodied by the number of likes and retweets one’s tweets typically receives, then narcissists’ self-promoting strategy pays off. Their desire for attention not only explained why they reported receiving more likes and retweets, but also explained why they were more likely to tweet about diet and exercise in both studies. In line with narcissists’ vanity about their appearance (Vazire et al., 2008) and desire for admiration from Twitter followers (Davenport et al., 2014), they may tweet about their diet and exercise routine because they want attention for being physically fit.
Machiavellianism
As predicted, people with Machiavellian traits were more likely to use Twitter than Facebook-only (Study 2), but the data provided few clues to explain Twitter’s appeal for these individuals. Contrary to hypotheses, Machiavellians were not significantly more likely to use Twitter for information-seeking or career promotion, nor did they tweet more frequently about intellectual topics or personal achievements in a purported attempt to impress influential others. If anything, they were less likely to use Twitter for attention-seeking, which explained why they tweeted less frequently about intellectual topics and diet/exercise. Because Machiavellians are concerned with reputational management (Jones & Paulhus, 2014), they may avoid tweeting about topics that have the potential to make them look pretentious or boastful. But this cautious strategy may come at a cost: Their aversion to attention-seeking explained why they received fewer likes/retweets on average to their tweets, suggesting that their low-key presence on Twitter does not generate much social reward. Although these data tell us what does not motivate Machiavellians and what they do not tweet about, the data do not tell us what does motivate them and what they do tweet about. One possibility is that Machiavellians are more likely to use Twitter to keep a cunning eye on friends and enemies alike. Such surveillance may allow them to gather information that is later used for manipulation and to gain social status.
Likability of Tweet Topics
Study 2 revealed that Twitter users most liked to read tweets/retweets about intellectual topics and least liked to read tweets about diet and exercise, consistent with other findings that information-sharing tweets are liked the most and personal tweets the least (Andre et al., 2012). This is not surprising given that Twitter users, on average, were higher in openness than nonusers in Studies 1 and 2, and these were the tweet topics that highly open people liked most and least. These results suggest that highly open people, by gravitating toward Twitter for the intellectual stimulation and career opportunities that it affords, may be influential in setting trends and what is considered popular and entertaining on Twitter. This may be particularly true for “public intellectuals,” actors, musicians, writers, artists, or other celebrities, who tend to amass large numbers of followers and likes/retweets.
If indeed Twitter is the kingdom of the intellectual and creative, then the current results also suggested that it may not be for the diet- and fitness-oriented. Study 2 participants tweeted least frequently about diet/exercise and liked these tweets the least, suggesting that posts about diet and exercise may be received more favorably in a social networking site like Instagram, where the sharing of photos may be more appealing to people concerned with fitness, health, and physical appearance. Paradoxically, however, Study 2 also found that people who frequently tweeted about diet/exercise reported receiving a significantly greater number of likes/retweets. Should not people who post about unpopular topics on Twitter receive fewer, not more, likes and retweets? Although most Twitter users may favor and tweet about intellectual topics, there may be a cadre of individuals from a health and fitness-oriented community who use Twitter to connect with each other and encourage each other’s health-related goals by supplying likes and retweets to each other’s posts. Indeed, tweeting about diet/exercise was predicted by not only attention-seeking motives but also social connection motives. What may matter most, then, is not what topics are deemed most likable by Twitter users in general, but the topics deemed most likable within one’s own social network. Indeed, the various niches within Twitter—for example, those dominated by certain politicians or celebrities—may produce tweets that are only deemed likable by the people within that niche.
Limitations and Future Directions
Although this research had several strengths—notably, that we conducted a preregistered replication of our findings in a different country—it also had several limitations. First, participants self-reported the frequency with which they tweeted about various topics and the number of likes/retweets they received, which may be prone to memory or social desirability biases. In particular, Machiavellians’ concern with reputation management may mean that they downplayed how frequently they tweeted about less socially desirable topics (e.g., diet/exercise), whereas narcissists—who enjoy showing off—may be especially likely to inflate the number of likes/retweets they receive. Future research should code participants’ actual tweets for various topic themes and record the number of likes/retweets for each, then examine associations with personality traits and motives for using Twitter. Further research could also examine whether people who tweet about topics popular within their own social network do indeed receive more likes/retweets, and whether this form of social reward enhances feelings of inclusion and well-being (Tobin et al., 2015). It may be the case that likes/retweets only enhance well-being among Twitter users who crave attention (i.e., narcissists, psychopaths, and introverts).
Second, our measures may require further refinement and expansion. In particular, our measure of informational motives for using Twitter reflected passive consumption of Twitter content rather than active generation. If future versions of this measure included items that reflected more active information exchange on Twitter, such as posting links to news stories, we might find that it is associated with personality traits such as openness. Indeed, we found that openness was significantly associated with career promotion, which tapped more active content generation (e.g., using Twitter to publicize one’s own creative output). Furthermore, it would be useful to measure a wider range of tweet topics. That people with psychopathic and Machiavellian traits are more likely to swear, use negative emotion words, and express anger in their tweets (Preotiuc-Pietro et al., 2017; Sumner et al., 2012) suggests that future research could test the predictors of tweeting about and liking for “darker” topics.
Finally, although we sampled Twitter users from two different countries, they may not be representative of the overall population of Twitter users, just as Twitter users may not be representative of larger populations. Even though we found that Twitter users were higher in openness than Facebook-only users in both samples, the effect sizes were small (rs = .10 and .09 in Studies 1 and 2, respectively) and require further replication in larger and more diverse samples.
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