Analyzing Personality through Social Media Profile Picture Choice

Authors

  • Leqi Liu Bryn Mawr College
  • Daniel Preotiuc-Pietro University of Pennsylvania
  • Zahra Riahi Samani Shahid Beheshti University G.C.
  • Mohsen E. Moghaddam Shahid Beheshti University G.C.
  • Lyle Ungar University of Pennsylvania

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1609/icwsm.v10i1.14738

Abstract

The content of images users post to their social media is driven in part by personality. In this study, we analyze how Twitter profile images vary with the personality of the users posting them. In our main analysis, we use profile images from over 66,000 users whose personality we estimate based on their tweets. To facilitate interpretability, we focus our analysis on aesthetic and facial features and control for demographic variation in image features and personality. Our results show significant differences in profile picture choice between personality traits, and that these can be harnessed to predict personality traits with robust accuracy. For example, agreeable and conscientious users display more positive emotions in their profile pictures, while users high in openness prefer more aesthetic photos.

ICWSM-2016 Cover

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Published

2021-08-04

How to Cite

Liu, L., Preotiuc-Pietro, D., Riahi Samani, Z., E. Moghaddam, M., & Ungar, L. (2021). Analyzing Personality through Social Media Profile Picture Choice. Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, 10(1), 211-220. https://doi.org/10.1609/icwsm.v10i1.14738

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 1 (2016): Tenth International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media

Section

Full Papers