Personality Perceptions Based on Social Networking Sites: An Examination of the Effect of Information Quantity and Individual Differences on Judgmental Accuracy

The use of social networking sites as a source of information about job candidates during the personnel selection process has become increasingly popular; however, factors that may influence judgments based on these sites have not been thoroughly examined. In particular, little research has investigated factors influencing the accuracy of personality perceptions stemming from this online information. The current study examined how amount of information and perceiver individual differences may influence the accuracy of personality perceptions based on social networking sites. This research drew from the Realistic Accuracy Model (RAM) to develop hypotheses regarding the perception of personality based on online social networking sites. The current study proposed that participants who viewed a privacy protected Facebook profile would render less accurate personality perceptions than participants who viewed a Facebook profile in its entirety. Additionally, this study hypothesized that three cognitive (General Mental Ability, Openness to Experience, and Dispositional Intelligence) and two motivational (Achievement and Organization) characteristics would influence the accuracy of these judgments such that these cognitive and motivational variables would be positively related to the accuracy of personality judgments. In addition, interactions between these variables and the amount of information received as well as potential mediators linking these variables to accuracy were hypothesized. Participants (a) completed measures of the three cognitive characteristics and two motivational characteristics, (b) were presented with either a half profile or full profile Facebook page, and (c) subsequently rated the profile owner's personality based on information received from the profile. Results from this experiment indicated that, as hypothesized, participants who viewed a full profile page were more accurate in assessing personality than participants who viewed only a portion of a profile page. In addition, the individual characteristics Achievement, Organization, Openness to Experience, and Dispositional Intelligence were all positively related to the accuracy of personality perceptions derived from an online social networking site, with Dispositional Intelligence partially mediating the relationship between Openness to Experience and accuracy. Finally, the hypothesized interactions between the cognitive and motivational variables and the amount of information received were not supported. The current study's results provide further insight into the factors that influence the assessment of personality derived from online social networking sites.