Language and Personality in Computer-Mediated Communication: A cross-genre comparison

It is known that personality is important in computer-mediated communication (CMC), influencing both how we express ourselves, and how we are perceived. Here we build in two ways on previous work which has used the LIWC text analysis tool to derive language factors relating to personality. First, we investigate whether linguistic factor structure in e-mail is similar to that in weblogs, and how these structures compare to previous findings for non-CMC, written language. Our findings broadly replicate results from offline studies, although blogs can be differentiated from non-CMC language, with e-mail sharing features with both genres. Secondly, we compare how the CMC language factors relate to personality, and seek differences between EPQ-R and Five-Factor Measures. We find that patterns of language behaviour for Neuroticism and Agreeableness distinguish CMC from non-CMC environments, while results from the two personality measures are largely compatible.