SOCIAL MEDIA:
THE EFFECT OF THE BIG FIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS
ON SOCIAL MEDIA USE
April, 2011
E.M. HOF
Student number: 1458035
Gaffelaarspad 3, 1081 KK Amsterdam, The Netherlands
+ 31 (0)6 51880457
e.m.hof@student.rug.nl
University of Groningen
Faculty of Economics and Business
Master thesis, Msc. Human Resource Management
Supervisor: Dr. L.B. Mulder
2
ndSupervisor: Prof. Dr. H.B.M. Molleman
Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Laetitia Mulder for helping me writing this thesis
by giving me valuable feedback and supporting ideas. Also, I would like to thank Sanoma
ABSTRACT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
1. INTRODUCTION
2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 2.1 The Big Five Model
Agreeableness Conscientiousness Extraversion Neuroticism
Openness to Experience 2.2 Big Five and Technology Use 2.3 Hypotheses
3. RESEARCH METHODS 3.1 Participants and Design 3.2 Procedure
3.3 Measures Having a job
The Big Five personality traits
Spending time on social media websites Control variables 4. RESULTS 4.1 Descriptive Statistics 4.2 Hypotheses Having a job Agreeableness Conscientiousness
Conscientiousness and having a job Extraversion Neuroticism Openness to Experience 5. DISCUSSION 5.1 General Discussion 5.2 Limitations
5.3 Conclusions and Recommendations
RECRUITING PERSONNEL TROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA:
THE EFFECT OF THE BIG FIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS ON SOCIAL MEDIA USE
ABSTRACT
This study investigates the relationship between the Big Five personality traits and the way people make use of social media. By doing this, we acquire the knowledge of what kind of users spend more time on these websites. With that knowledge recruiters can make more effective use of social media when searching for new, suitable personnel. To test if people are actively seeking for a job on these websites, a survey study was performed in which people’s Big Five personality traits, their job status, and their use of social media was measured. Having a job was negatively related to leisure social media website use, while agreeableness was positively related to leisure social media website use. Conscientiousness and extraversion were positively related to professional social media website use. Implications for using social media for recruitment are discussed.
1. INTRODUCTION
Social media websites are being used for various reasons. Keeping in touch with the people from your previous hometown, getting all the information from your favorite artist, or even letting people know you are moving, was never this easy.
The rise of social media is the latest phase in the ongoing evolution of media consumption (Campaign (UK), 2010). This is why social media is also an interesting medium for business purposes. By creating an account on websites like Facebook.com, LinkedIn.com, and Twitter.com companies can build a network around its brand and keep those interested informed about everything the company is involved in. According to Brennan (2010), there are several advantages for businesses to make use of social media sites. For example, she states that companies can update their customers and followers quickly, as a replacement or addition to email announcements, on events such as sales and companies can also use social media to respond to customer complaints and to correct misinformation about the product or company.
LinkedIn is apparently the most commonly used social media application in workplaces; in HR Focus’s (2010) “HR Focus Social Media Survey”, LinkedIn is the leading social media in nearly
every industry except for government/education/non-profit. Facebook is the second most popular social medium overall. Twitter is the most recent social medium and is most popular among small organizations (i.e., 75 percent of the organizations with less than 50 employees are using it). Twitter is also a popular choice at government/education/non-profit organizations, professional services firms, and media/ publishing companies (HR Focus, 2010).
More and more companies are also using social media as a recruitment tool. By placing vacancies on these social media websites or by responding to job seekers who are trying to apply via these websites, employers interact with prospective employees using a medium with which the employees are familiar and comfortable. Social media also enables companies to investigate prospective employees, such as by expanding background checks (Brennan, 2010). It is clearly cost- and effort-saving because it saves money and time, but is it effective enough to attract adequate personnel?
This thesis describes a research where I will use the Big Five model as a framework for personality. The Big Five factors are: agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism,
and openness to experience. By using this model, I am trying to examine the following research
question:
How is the use of social media websites influenced by having a job and by the Big Five personality traits?
By exploring this research question it can be made clear if and how jobseekers are using social media websites for job seeking purposes. By using the Big Five as a framework, it can be made apparent which websites are more popular for what kind of jobseekers.
The results of the research are interesting for companies because by having this knowledge, companies could use it in their search for new, suitable employees. Thus, companies could customize the use of social media websites for certain types of jobs. For example, if a company needs an employee for their sales department and salespeople, who tend to be extraverts (Barrick and Mount, 1991), appear to be more active users of leisure social media websites like Facebook, or Twitter (and practically never login on professional social media websites like LinkedIn), the most effective option for using social media websites for trying to fill this vacancy would be to use only leisure social media websites and leave the professional social media websites out.
This way, it is more likely that the people who read the message are actually the people the company wants it to read and this will probably result in a more adequate pool of applicants in the beginning of the search for employees.
2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 2.1 The Big Five Model
The Big Five model is a well-known model for measuring personality traits. Fortunately, according to Landers and Lounsbury (2006), there is a general consensus regarding the Big Five model as a unified, parsimonious conceptual framework for personality (Digman, 1990, 1997).
Agreeableness. This trait refers to traits such as altruism, tender-mindedness, modesty, being
association between agreeableness and tendencies toward kindness, unselfishness, generosity, and fairness. Students who are low in agreeableness tend to be more aggressive and less cooperative (Chowdhury & Amin, 2006).
Barrick and Mount (1991) investigated the relation between the Big Five dimensions to three job performance criteria (job proficiency, training proficiency, and personnel data) for five occupational groups (professionals, police, managers, sales, and skilled/semi-skilled). The results for agreeableness in that study suggest that this trait is not an important predictor of job performance, even in those jobs containing a large social component (e.g., sales or management). However, teamwork was not measured in this study. According to Mount, Barrick and Stewart (1998), agreeableness seems to be most relevant in situations in which group projects, teamwork, and collaborative learning are needed.
Conscientiousness. This trait describes task and goal-directed behaviour such as organizing and
prioritizing tasks, being hardworking, achievement-oriented, and persevering. (Barrick & Mount, 1991; Ulu & Tezer, 2010). Ulu and Tezer (2010) described conscientiousness as task and goal-directed behaviour such as organizing and prioritizing tasks. From a societal perspective, people who are highly conscientious are less likely to commit crimes (Miller & Lynam, 2001). At the individual level, conscientiousness is related to more effective functioning in multiple domains such as work (Judge, Martocchio, & Thoresen, 1997), health (Friedman, Tucker, Tomlinson-Keasey, Schwartz, Wingard & Criqui, 1993), health behaviours (Bogg & Roberts, 2004), and life functioning (Soldz & Vaillant, 1999).
Extraversion. This trait includes traits such as sociability, activity, assertiveness, positive
emotionality, being gregarious, and talkative (Barrick & Mount, 1991; Ulu & Tezer, 2010). According to Hall (2009), extraversion refers to individuals’ tendencies to seek out activity and new experiences, particularly social interactions with others. Those high in extraversion tend to be more outgoing, talkative, active, and assertive than those low in this trait (McCroskey, Heisel & Richmond, 2001). Not surprisingly, positive correlations have been reported among the personality traits extraversion and sensation seeking (Zuckerman & Bone, 1972). Cuperman and Ickes (2009) found that more extraverted actors were more likely to report the lead in the conversation; to rate the interaction as smooth, natural, and relaxed; and to say they felt comfortable interacting with their partners.
Barrick and Mount (1991) found extraversion to be a valid predictor for two occupations, managers and sales. For both types of jobs, interaction with others is a significant portion of the job. Thus traits such as sociable, gregarious, talkative, assertive, and active would lead to effective performance in these jobs, whereas these traits would be less important in jobs such as skilled/semi-skilled (e.g., secretaries, orderlies, assemblers, accountants, production workers) and professionals (e.g., engineers, architects).
Neuroticism. This trait refers to negative emotionality such as feeling anxious, nervous, sad, tense,
depressed, angry, embarrassed, emotional, worried, and insecure (Barrick & Mount, 1991; Ulu & Tezer, 2010). Individuals who are high in neuroticism are thought to be more reactive than those with low levels of this trait, which means that highly neurotic individuals are particularly likely to be anxious and tense (Hall, 2009). This suggests that individuals who are high in neuroticism are more likely to be fearful and apprehensive about communicating with others (McCroskey, Heisel & Richmond, 2001). Cuperman & Ickes (2009) found evidence that the more neurotic actors were uncomfortable during their interactions and projected similar feelings onto their partners. They reported feeling self-conscious and tried harder to get “in sync” with their partners by following their lead. And, interestingly, they believed that their partners felt and acted the same way.
Barrick and Mount (1991) found that most of the correlations between neuroticism and job performance were relatively low. In Tok’s and Morali’s study (2009), neuroticism was found to be negatively related with grade point averages (GPA). This last result is in line with the results of Chamorro-Premuzic and Furnham (2003a), Chamorro-Premuzic and Furnham (2003b), De Fruyt and Mervielde (1996), suggesting a negative relationship between neuroticism and GPA or other academic performance-related parameters, like exam marks, or educational achievements.
Openness to experience. This trait includes traits such as creativeness, originality, imaginativeness,
‘openness to experience’ dimension were associated with interest in discussing intellectual and philosophical topics, including fantasies and daydreams. People who scored higher on this dimension would initiate more conversation sequences as a way of introducing new topics and thereby encouraging their interaction partners to share more of their personal insights and experiences (Cuperman & Ickes, 2009).
In Barrick’s and Mount’s (1991) study, openness to experience was found to be a valid predictor of training proficiency. One possible explanation is that individuals who score high on this dimension (e.g., intelligent, curious, broad-minded, and cultured) are more likely to have positive attitudes toward learning experiences in general. Thus, measures of openness to experience may identify which individuals are "training ready"—those who are most willing to engage in learning experiences—and, consequently, may be useful in identifying those who are most likely to benefit from training programs. It is possible that openness to experience is actually measuring ability to learn as well as motivation to learn (Barrick & Mount, 1991). Tok and Morali (2009) found that openness to experience was slightly related to academic performance.
2.2 Big Five and Technology Use
In Ehrenberg’s, Juckes’, White’s and Walsh’s (2008) study extraverts reported more text message use (SMS). They suggested that this was possibly due to a proclivity for social interaction. Individuals high on neuroticism also reported more text message use, suggesting they prefer it over phone calls because this communication medium may allow neurotic communicators more time to review message content (Butt & Phillips, 2008). Bianchi and Phillips (2005) found that mobile phone users tend to be extraverts. However, they did not find relationships between neuroticism and mobile phone use.
Clearly, there seems to be a relationship between personality and the way people use the internet. Does this mean that there is also a relationship between personality and the way people make use of social media websites? The way people make use of social media websites is very diverse. On the one hand, there are people who are members of a social media website but only log in few times a year. On the other hand, there are people who log in several times a day and keep their friends or followers updated through the day. Also, some people have a lot of friends or followers, whereas others have only a few. At the same time, people could have different goals for visiting these websites: just for fun, because they have free time, or because they find it useful, for example when searching for a new job. What is interesting here is to examine “what kind of people” is visiting these social media sites (for example, are extraverts spending more time on these websites than introverts?), and how are they using these sites; for leisure or professional purposes? Hence, the influence of seeking a job and personality on the use of social media sites is interesting to explore.
2.3 Hypotheses
First, a comparison will be made between having a job or not. In Ott’s, Blacksmith’s and Royal’s (2008) study, a majority of jobseekers said they used online job databases and organizations' individual websites during their most recent employment search. This may also be the case for the use of social media websites; people could use social media sites to seek a job. Alternatively, it could also be the case that people who do not have a job happen to spend more time on social media websites because they have more time on their hands.
Further, a comparison will be made between different social media websites. By doing this, I am trying to explore if some websites attract different kind of users than other websites. The following websites will be compared: Facebook.com, Hyves.nl, LinkedIn.com, and Twitter.com. Facebook was initially developed for students1, with mainly leisure purposes; Hyves is the largest Dutch social
network site2 and is also initially designed for mainly leisure purposes. Twitter, although it is being
used more and more for business purposes, is mainly being used for leisure purposes. Based on these data, I will categorize these three websites as Leisure social websites. LinkedIn is the only chosen social media website which is aimed at professionals3. That is why in this research I will categorize
LinkedIn as a Professional social website. I expect that the Big Five characteristics will differentially influence the use of leisure social media websites and the use of professional social media websites.
I propose that people without a job, in comparison with people with a job, will make more use of both leisure and professional social media websites. This will be evident from spending more time on the websites.
Hypothesis 1. There is a negative relation between having a job and spending time on leisure and professional social media websites.
According to Landers and Lounsbury (2006), people who score low on agreeableness tend to make more use of the internet than people who score high on this trait. Based on this result, I expect to find the same for the use of social media websites (both leisure social websites as professional social websites). In other words, I propose that active users of the social media websites will score lower on agreeableness than less active users.
Hypothesis 2. There is a negative relation between agreeableness and spending time on leisure and professional social media websites.
Landers and Lounsbury (2006) found that there was solely a negative relationship between conscientiousness and relative internet usage when it was being used for leisure purposes. When used for academic purposes, there actually seemed to be a positive relationship between conscientiousness and relative internet usage. This could be because conscientiousness describes goal-oriented behaviour. Conscientious people also tend to be achievement-oriented, and persevering (Barrick & Mount, 1991, Ulu & Tezer, 2010). Because LinkedIn is aimed at professional purposes, as opposed to the other social media websites, which are aimed at solely social purposes, I expect that people who score high on conscientiousness will spend more time on professional social websites and spend less time on leisure social websites than people who score low on conscientiousness.
Hypothesis 3a. There is a negative relation between conscientiousness and spending time on leisure social websites;
Hypothesis 3b. There is a positive relation between conscientiousness and spending time on professional social websites
Hypothesis 4. There is an interaction between conscientiousness and having a job on use of social media websites. Namely, there is a positive relation between conscientiousness and spending time on social media websites for people without a job; there is no relation between conscientiousness and spending time on social media websites for people with a job.
According to Peter, Valkenburg and Schouten (2005), introverts reported less frequent online communication. Sheldon (2008) showed that those who are involved in online relationships are the ones who are eager to communicate in real life as well. These people also had more friends on Facebook (Sheldon, 2008). Hall (2009) showed a positive relationship between extraversion and time spent on social network sites. Due to these results, I expect that in this research, the more active members of social media websites will have higher scores on extraversion than less active members.
Hypotheses 5. There is a positive relation between extraversion and spending time on both leisure and professional social media websites.
According to Hall (2009), people who score high on neuroticism tend to spend more time on social network sites. This relationship suggests that the sites appeal to those who are likely to be anxious communicating in other contexts (Hall, 2009). Because of this result, I expect to find the same in this research. In other words, active members of social media websites will have higher scores on neuroticism than less active members.
Hypotheses 6. There is a positive relation between neuroticism and spending time on both leisure and professional social media websites.
A ‘typical website owner’ (i.e. owners of personal websites) would be relatively high on openness to experience (Marcus et al., 2006). Also, people who score high on openness to experience tend to be curious and broad-minded (Barrick & Mount, 1991). Because of this I expect that this research will show that active social media website users will have higher scores on openness to experience than less active users.
3. RESEARCH METHODS 3.1 Participants and Design
Data was collected by sending a message via Facebook, Hyves, LinkedIn, and Twitter, containing a link to the questionnaire. Also, an email was sent to acquaintances of the researcher, to the Human Resources department of Sanoma Uitgevers, and to the Private Banking department and the stock department of Rabobank Noordenveld West Groningen. In this message, people were asked to fill out the questionnaire and were requested to forward the message to their friends (and followers). 108 participants (45 men, and 63 women) filled out the questionnaire. Two participants were lowly educated (LBO / MAVO / MBO-1), 27 were medium educated (HAVO / VWO / MBO-2-4), and 79 were highly educated (HBO / WO). The average age of the participants is 32 years old (SD = 10). Sixty-nine participants were a Facebook-member, 76 participants were a Hyves-member, 62 were a member of LinkedIn, and 43 were Twitter-members. Twenty participants (18.5%) were members of all four social media websites, and 5 participants (4.6%) had no membership of any social media website
3.2 Procedure
The participants were told that the answers of the questionnaire were going to be processed anonymously. Further, they had the option to be given a summary of the results after the research was done by giving their email address.
First, some questions about demographic features (gender, age, and level of education) were asked. Then, they were asked if they currently have a job, and to what degree (not at all / not / neutral / open / completely open) they were open to a new job. Then, they were asked questions about the social media websites. To be more specific, they were asked, per website, if they were a member of the specific website, and how much time (in hours) they spent on the specific website that preceding month. Finally, they were asked questions about the Big Five personality traits; they were asked to indicate to what degree 44 characteristics applied to them (strongly disagree / disagree / neutral / agree / strongly agree) (John & Srivastava, 1999). In the end the participants were thanked for their cooperation.
3.3 Measures
Having a job. The first independent variable was having a job. This was measured by whether the participants currently have a job (yes (1) / no (-1)). Ninety one participants currently have a job, as opposed to 17 who don’t.
well as with peer ratings (John & Srivastava, 1999). The alpha reliabilities of the BFI scales in this research are 0.67 for agreeableness, 0.83 for conscientiousness, 0.76 for extraversion, 0.84 for neuroticism, and 0.76 for openness to experience.
Spending time on social media websites. The dependent variable was the level of activity on the social media websites. The variables were hours spent per month on the leisure social media websites (the sum of the hours spent per month on Facebook, Hyves, and Twitter combined) and the hours spent per month on professional social media websites (LinkedIn).
Control variables. The control variables in this research are age, gender, and in some cases openness to a job. The average score on the openness to a job-scale is 3.37.
4. RESULTS 4.1 Descriptive statistics
Participants spent an average of 17.28 hours in a month on leisure social media websites, and 3.25 hours on Professional social media websites.
Table 1 shows the correlations between the independent variables and the dependent variable. As can be seen, there is a significant negative relation between currently having a job and the time spent on leisure social media websites (r = -.25, p = .01). That is, people currently not having a job spent more time on leisure social media websites than people currently having a job. There is a significant positive relation between agreeableness and the time spent on leisure social media websites (r = .22, p = .03), that is, people who score higher on agreeableness spent more time on leisure social media websites. There is a significant negative relation between conscientiousness and the time spent on leisure social media websites (r = -.28, p < .01), that is, people who score higher on conscientiousness spent less time on leisure social media websites. There is a significant positive relation between neuroticism and the time spent on leisure social media websites (r = .19, p < .05), that is, people who score higher on neuroticism spent more time on leisure social media websites. Finally, there is a significant positive relation between the time spent on leisure social media websites and the time spent on professional social media websites (r = .23, p = .02), that is, people who spent more time on leisure social media websites also spent more time on professional social media websites.
4.2 Hypotheses
leisure social media websites as a dependent variable was performed. In step 1, the independent variables, age, and gender, and the control variable, currently having a job, were entered in the regression. Age (B = -.25, p = .01) and currently having a job (B = -.17, p = .09) (marginally) predicted the time spent on leisure social media websites (R2 = .12). Thus, younger people and people without a
job spent more time on leisure social media websites than older people and people with a job. If the effect of having a job on spending time on leisure social media websites is due to people actually wanting a job, rather than just having more time on their hands, then the effect of having a job would disappear when controlling for openness to a job. That is why openness to a job was entered in step 2. This did not significantly increase the explained variance (R2 = .12, ΔR2 < .01, p = .75), nor did it
change the effect of currently having a job (B = -.17, p = .09). Thus, although the result was in line with hypothesis 1, it seems that leisure social media websites are not specifically used for job seeking purposes.
Second, a 2-step regression analysis with time spent on professional social media websites as dependent variable was performed. In step 1, age, gender, and currently having a job were entered in the regression. Only gender predicted the time spent on professional social media websites (B = -.22, p = .02, R2 = .06). Thus, men spent more time on professional social media websites than women.
Having a job did not predict the time spent on professional social media websites (B = -.12, p = .25). Openness to a job was entered in step 2. This did not significantly increase the explained variance (R2
= .06, ΔR2 < .01, p = .63), and it did not change the (lack of) effect of currently having a job on the
time spent on professional social media websites. Having a job (B = -.13, p = .23) and openness to a job (B = -.05, p = .63) did not predict the time spent on professional social media websites. This was in contrast with hypothesis 1, which predicted a negative relation between having a job and spending time on professional social media websites.
Agreeableness. To test if agreeableness negatively predicts the time spent on both leisure and professional social media websites (hypothesis 2), I performed two separate regression analyses, with the use of social media sites as dependent variables. The results of these analyses are shown in table 3. First, a 2-step regression analysis with time spent on leisure social media websites as dependent variable was performed. In step 1, age and gender were entered in the regression. Only age predicted the time spent on leisure social media websites (B = -.30, p < .01, R2 = .09). Thus, younger people
spent more time on leisure social media websites than older people. Agreeableness was entered in step 2. This significantly increased the variance (R2 = .15, Δ R2 = .05, p = .01). Agreeableness significantly
Second, a 2-step regression analysis was performed, with time spent on professional social media websites as dependent variable. In step 1, age and gender were entered in the regression. Only gender predicted the time spent on professional social media websites (B = -.22, p = .03, R2 = .05).
Thus, men spent more time on professional social media websites than women. In step 2, agreeableness was entered. This did not significantly increase the variance (R2 = .06, Δ R2 = .02, p = .
18). Agreeableness did not significantly predict the time spent on professional social media websites (B = .13, p = .18). This was not in line with hypothesis 2 that predicted a negative relation between agreeableness and spending time on professional social media websites.
Conscientiousness. To test if there is a negative relation between conscientiousness and spending time on leisure social media websites (hypothesis 3a) and a positive relation between conscientiousness and spending time on professional social media websites (hypothesis 3b), two separate regression analyses were made, with the social media sites as dependent variables. The results of these analyses are shown in table 3. First, a 2-step regression analysis with time spent on leisure social media websites as dependent variable was performed. In step 1, age and gender were entered in the regression. In step 2, conscientiousness was entered. This marginally significant increased the variance (R2 = .12, Δ R2 = .03, p = .08). Conscientiousness marginally significant predicted the time
spent on leisure social media websites (B = -.19, p = .08). Thus, in line with hypothesis 3a, people who score higher on conscientiousness spent less time on leisure social media websites.
Second, I performed a 2-step regression analysis, with time spent on professional social media websites as dependent variable. In step 1, age and gender were entered in the regression. In step 2, conscientiousness was entered. This significantly increased the variance (R2 = .11, Δ R2 = .07, p = .01).
Conscientiousness significantly predicted the time spent on professional social media websites (B = . 29, p = .01). Thus, in line with hypothesis 3b, people who score higher on conscientiousness spent more time on professional social media websites.
spent more time on leisure social media websites than people with a job and people who score higher on conscientiousness. In step 2, the currently a job × conscientiousness interaction was entered. This significantly increased the variance (R2 = .22, Δ R2 = .07, p < .01). There was a significant interaction
between currently having a job and conscientiousness in spending time on leisure social media websites (B = .28, p < .01). As can be seen in Figure 1, conscientiousness was negatively related to spending time on leisure social media websites, but this relation was stronger for people who currently do not have a job. Thus, people without a job spent less time on leisure social media websites as they score higher on conscientiousness. The thing that is striking here is the difference between the time spent by people without a job and with low scores on conscientiousness, compared to the time spent by the people who score high on conscientiousness and the people with a job. This suggests that when not having a job, particularly low conscientious people spend more time on leisure social media websites. To test whether this is because they are more open for jobs, or because they just have more time on their hands, openness to a job was entered in step 3. This did not significantly increase the variance (R2 = .22, Δ R2 < .01, p = .81), nor did it change the trend of the effect of the currently a job ×
conscientiousness interaction (B = .28, p < .01). Thus, it seems that, in contrast with hypothesis 4, leisure social media websites are not specifically being used for job seeking purposes.
Second, I performed a 3-step regression analysis, with time spent on professional social media websites as dependent variable. In step 1, age, gender, currently having a job, and conscientiousness were entered in the regression. Gender (B = -.30, p < .01), and conscientiousness (B = .29, p < .01), predicted the time spent on professional social media websites (R2 = .12). Thus, men and people who
score higher on conscientiousness spent more time on professional social media websites than women and people who score lower on conscientiousness. In step 2, the currently a job × conscientiousness interaction was entered. This did not significantly increase the variance (R2 = .13, Δ R2 = .01, p = .25).
There was not a significant interaction between currently having a job and conscientiousness in spending time on professional social media websites (B = -.11, p = .25). To test if this relation is influenced by whether people are open to a job or not (and thus use these websites for job seeking purposes), openness to a job was entered in step 3. This did not significantly increased the variance (R2 = .14, Δ R2 < .01, p = .63), nor did it change the trend of the effect of the currently a job ×
conscientiousness interaction (B = -.11, p = .25). Thus, it seems that, in contrast with hypothesis 4, professional social media websites are not specifically being used for job seeking purposes.
spent on leisure social media websites (B = -.01, p = .93). This was not in line with hypothesis 5, which predicted a positive relation between extraversion and spending time on leisure social media websites.
Second, a 2-step regression analysis with time spent on professional social media websites as dependent variable was performed. In step 1, age and gender were entered in the regression. In step 2, extraversion was entered. This marginally significant increased the variance (R2 = .08, Δ R2 = .03, p = .
07). Extraversion marginally significant predicted the time spent on professional social media websites (B = .18, p = .07). Thus, in line with hypothesis 5, people who score higher on extraversion spent more time on professional social media websites.
Neuroticism. To test if neuroticism positively predicts the time spent on social media sites (hypothesis 6), two separate 2-step regressions were made, with the social media sites as dependent variables. The results of these analyses are shown in table 3. First, a 2-step regression analysis with time spent on leisure social media websites as dependent variable was performed. In step 1, age and gender were entered in the regression. In step 2, neuroticism was entered. This did not significantly increase the variance (R2 = .11, Δ R2 = .02, p = .13). Neuroticism did not significantly predict the time spent on
leisure social media websites (B = .13, p = .19). This was not in line with hypothesis 6 that predicted a positive relation between neuroticism and spending time on leisure social media websites.
Second, a 2-step regression analysis with time spent on professional social media websites as dependent variable was performed. In step 1, age and gender were entered in the regression. In step 2, neuroticism was entered. This did not significantly increase the variance (R2 = .07, Δ R2 = .02, p = .13).
Neuroticism did not significantly predict the time spent on professional social media websites (B = -.16, p = .13). This was not in line with hypothesis 6, which predicted a positive relation between neuroticism and spending time on professional social media websites.
Openness to experience. To test if openness to experience positively predicts the time spent on social media sites (hypothesis 7), two separate 2-step regressions were made, with the social media sites as dependent variables. The results of these analyses are shown in table 3. First, a 2-step regression analysis with time spent on leisure social media websites as dependent variable was performed. In step 1, age and gender were entered in the regression. In step 2, openness to experience was entered. This did not significantly increase the variance (R2 = .10, Δ R2 < .01, p = .61). Openness to experience did
not significantly predict the time spent on leisure social media websites (B = .05, p = .61). This was not in line with hypothesis 7, which predicted a positive relation between openness to experience and spending time on leisure social media websites.
01, p = .31). Openness to experience did not significantly predict the time spent on professional social media websites (B = .10, p = .31). This was not in line with hypothesis 7 that predicted a positive relation between openness to experience and spending time on professional social media websites.
5. DISCUSSION 5.1 General Discussion
The present study investigated how the use of social media websites is influenced by having a job and by the Big Five personality traits. Comparisons between having a job or not were made to see whether people use social media websites for job seeking purposes, and comparisons between leisure and professional social media websites were made to see if the websites attract different kind of users. It was expected that the Big Five characteristics would influence the use of leisure and professional social media websites.
It was hypothesized that there is a positive relation between having a job and spending time on leisure and professional social media websites. The results show that people who currently do not have a job spend more time on leisure social media websites than people with a job. There is no significant relation between having a job and spending time on professional social media websites. I controlled for openness for a job to see if the effect is due to people actually wanting a job, rather than just having more time on their hands. The effect of having a job on spending time on leisure social media websites did not disappear, which suggests that people mainly just spend their free time on these websites rather than use these websites because they want a job. According to Ott, Blacksmith and Royal (2008), jobseekers use online job databases and organizations’ individual websites in their search for employment. The results suggest that this is not true for social media websites. People do not particularly use professional social media websites when they are without a job and, although people without a job use leisure social media websites more than people with a job, they do this mainly for leisure purposes rather than for job seeking purposes.
game websites (which mainly have the purpose to entertain), leisure social media websites have social purposes, and this seems to attract agreeable people, compared to other websites. The lack of a significant relation between agreeableness and spending time on professional social media websites, confirms that leisure social media websites seem to fulfill a social function. Future research should make a distinction between leisure social media websites and other websites when discussing the relation between agreeableness and internet use. Future research should also focus on the purpose of agreeable people when using leisure social media websites and test whether it is indeed the case whether these websites are used for social purposes.
It was hypothesized that there is a negative relation between conscientiousness and spending time on leisure social media websites and that there is a positive relation between conscientiousness and spending time on professional social media websites. The results show, in agreement with the hypothesis, that high-conscientious people spent less time on leisure social media websites, and more time on professional social media websites than low-conscientious people. This is in line with Landers and Lounsbury (2006), who proposed that there is solely a negative relation between conscientiousness and internet use when it was being used for leisure purposes. The results suggest that conscientious people only make more use of social media websites when this is for professional purposes. So when companies are specifically searching for employees who are organizing and achievement-oriented, the present results suggest that their search will be most efficiently when using professional social media websites.
on social media websites to kill the time. But it is not clearly the case that high conscientious people use social media specifically to find a job.
It was hypothesized that there is a positive relation between extraversion and spending time on both leisure and professional social media websites. The results show that extraversion did not predict the time spent on leisure social media websites, but extraverts did spent more time on professional social media websites. The latter is in accordance with Peter, Valkenburg, and Schouten (2005), who showed that introverts communicate less frequently online, and Hall (2009), who showed that there is a positive relation between extraversion and the time spent on social media websites. The present results show that extraverts mainly prefer professional social media websites compared to introverts. This could be due to the characteristics of these websites: networking, and being visibly linked to professional relations. These characteristics seem to be favored by extraverts, who are generally sociable, and assertive, in contrast to introverts, who generally do not possess these traits. According to Barrick and Mount (1991) extraversion is a valid predictor for two occupations: managers and sales. Thus, when companies want to use social media websites in their search for employees with management-, or sales-skills, this research suggests that they are better off when they mainly use professional social media websites.
It was hypothesized that there is a positive relation between neuroticism and spending time on both leisure and professional social media websites. The results show no relation between neuroticism and spending time on social media websites. According to Hall (2009), people who score high on neuroticism tend to spend more time on social network sites. For our sample, this was not the case. The fact that our results are not in line with previous research could be due to the fact that the participants in Hall’s (2009) study were solely students, who had a profile on at least one social network site, while the present study also contains non-student participants and participants who have no membership of any social media website. This could make a difference because when all the participants in the present study were members of at least one social media website, the hours spent on these websites would automatically be higher. And it could be that especially the neurotic participants in Hall’s (2009) study spent more time on social network sites because they were students, with stressful exams, who used social network sites to help them de-stress. The present study does not contain solely students, but also people with fulltime jobs, who simply do not have the possibility to spend time on social media websites when stressed. Future research could make a distinction between neurotic students and non-students, and ask questions about social media websites in stressful situations, to find out if neurotic students tend to spend time on social media websites when stressed, as opposed to non-students.
broad-minded. However, the present results suggest that these traits are not important factors in spending more time on social media websites. Thus, it seems that social media websites are not experienced as a means to gain new experiences. Future research could therefore ask questions about the purpose of visiting social media websites and, thereby focus on the traits that describe openness to experience, to find out, if it is not about gaining new experiences, why (or why not) they are spending time on these websites.
5.2 Limitations
The present research suffers from some limitations. First, the levels of education of the participants were not normally distributed. In fact, seventy-three percent of the participants were highly educated, while only two percent of the participants were lowly educated. Future research could make use of more lowly and medium educated participants in percentage to increase generalizability. Second, only five percent of the participants had no membership of any social media website. Including more participants with no membership would increase generalizability. To increase generalizability, future research could make use of more non-members of social media websites.
5.3 Conclusions and recommendations
In conclusion, the results suggest that people without a job, and agreeable people spend more time on leisure social media websites, and that low-conscientious people only spend more time on these websites when they do not have a job. High-conscientious people spend less time on leisure social media websites. High-conscientious people and extraverts spend more time on professional social media websites.
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a job . . . a job Leisure
websites Professional websites
Currently a job 1 .02 -.09 -.03 .19* -.05 .35** .06 .17 -.25** .10 Agreeableness 1 .17 .18 -.07 .14 -.02 .19* .03 .22* .09 Conscientiousness 1 .15 -.19* -.10 .37** . 26** -.08 -.28** .16 Extraversion 1 -.22* .17 -.02 .05 -.07 -.01 .17 Neuroticism 1 -.09 -.29* * .17 .01 .19* -.17 Openness to Experience 1 .04 -.01 .10 .04 .09 Age 1 -.07 -.13 -.30** -.01 Sex 1 -.05 -.06 -.21* Openness to a job 1 .03 -.02 Timespent Leisurewebsites 1 .23*
Timespent Professional websites 1
websites as a function of age, gender, currently having a job, and openness to a job.
Time spent leisure social media websites
Time spent professional social media websites
Step 1 Step 2 Step 1 Step 2
B B B B
Age -.25* -.25* .02 .02
Gender -.09 -.09 -.22* -.22*
Currently having a job -.17+ -.17+ -.12 -.13
websites as a function of age, gender, and the Big Five personality traits.
Time spent Leisure social media websites
Time spent professional social media websites
Step 1 Step 2 Step 1 Step 2
TABLE 4
Results of Hierarchical Regression on the time spent on leisure and professional social media websites as a function of age, gender, currently having a job, conscientiousness, and openness to
a job.
Time spent leisure
social media websites Time spent professional social media websites
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 1 Step 2 Step 3
B B B B B B
Age -.17 -.20+ -.20+ -.10 -.08 -.09
Gender -.03 < .01 < -.01 -.30** -.31** -.31**
Currently having a job -.17+ -.12 -.12 -.11 -.13 -.14
Conscientiousness -.19+ -.18+ -.19+ .29** .28** .28** Currently a job × Conscientiousness .28** .28** -.11 -.11 Openness to a job -.02 -.05 R2 .15 .22 .22 .12 .13 .14 Δ R2 .07 < .01 .01 < .01 + p < .10 * p < .05 ** p < .01 FIGURE 1
