A Basingstoke IT security expert has launched a major experiment using Facebook.
Chris Sumner, 39, from Chineham, is conducting the first survey of its kind in a bid to find out how a person’s personality is revealed through their online activities.
He has created an application on Facebook and is calling for volunteers to take the test online.
He said: “The Big 5 Personality Experiment aims to investigate what someone’s Facebook activity could say about their personality and whether it’s possible to alter how they appear to others.
“The point is not looking at how people use social media like Facebook or Twitter, but to make people realise how they are presented.”
His analyses aspects of a volunteer’s Facebook page. A team of researchers will look at photos, study status updates and information displayed.
All pages studied will remain anonymous and any data presented will not be attributable to any individual.
The data will then be correlated with a Myers-Briggs personality test, which uses questions to determine a person’s personality based on the ‘big five’ traits of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.
Myers-Briggs is used by companies when vetting potential employees, and Mr Sumner wants to see if by using Facebook, people are unwittingly giving themselves away.
His work is supported by Gill Empringham, a freelance human resources consultant from Sherfield-on-Loddon.
The pair have launched the Online Privacy Foundation to campaign for greater cyber awareness.
Gill said: “Now there are so many companies springing up saying they can vet people using Facebook, it’s important that people know what they are giving away.”
Mr Sumner is pushing for more than 400 to sign up.
Mr Sumner added: “We both use Facebook all the time. This is not designed to scare anyone or to alarm people.
“It is to help people make informed choices about how they come across. And right now I do not think people are fully informed.”
To take part in the experiment, search The Big Five Personality Experiment through Facebook.
