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Inferring Personality From Email Addresses

paleshadows writes "Three researchers from the University of Leipzig published an interesting paper titled 'How extroverted is honey.bunny77@hotmail.de? Inferring personality from e-mail addresses' (PDF). From the abstract: 'Email addresses represent the thinnest slice of information that people receive from one another. Using 599 e-mail addresses of young adults, their self-reported personality scores and the personality judgments of 100 independent observers, it was shown that personality impressions based solely on e-mail addresses were consensually shared by observers. Moreover, these impressions contained some degree of validity. This was true for neuroticism, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and narcissism but not for extroversion."'

36 of 309 comments (clear)

  1. Erste gepostung by Bloke+down+the+pub · · Score: 4, Funny

    How extraverted is honey.bunny77@hotmail.de

    I don't know, but I have a suspicion that he/she doesn't have much of a sense on humour.

    --
    It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.
    1. Re:Erste gepostung by oldspewey · · Score: 2, Funny

      Germans have a sense of humour ... it's just that it's painfully unique to Germans.

      --
      If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
    2. Re:Erste gepostung by neumayr · · Score: 2, Funny

      My guess is that he tried to emulate what he knew about American humor from watching MTV.
      In other words, he was being a twat.

      --
      Truth arises more readily from error than from confusion. -Francis Bacon
    3. Re:Erste gepostung by The+Great+Pretender · · Score: 2, Funny

      Were the people American or French? Trust me it's important...

      --
      A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
    4. Re:Erste gepostung by Bloke+down+the+pub · · Score: 2, Funny

      Was that one of theirs or one of ours?

      --
      It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.
  2. How about... by bakes · · Score: 4, Funny

    What does the address chunkylover53@aol.com tell you?

    --
    Ho! Haha! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Ha! Thrust!
    1. Re:How about... by Joe+the+Lesser · · Score: 5, Funny

      mmmm, chunky peanut butter....

      --
      "I only speak the truth"
      Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
  3. It says a lot by larry+bagina · · Score: 5, Funny

    I mean, consider an address like "leatherdude@hotmale.com", "bottom4lrgck@gmail.com", or "cowboyneal@slashdot.org" It's fairly safe to assume they're into the gay scene.

    --
    Do you even lift?

    These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

  4. Re:Ummm by El_Muerte_TDS · · Score: 4, Funny

    From that I can tell you are a some what a geek who visits sites like SlashDot. It also tells me that you are concerned about your email address being harvested and eventually being used as a target for spam.

    Now do me. My email address is: useless.research.nominations _at_ elmuerte.com

  5. Dear Researchers at Leipzig University... by pandrijeczko · · Score: 5, Funny

    You clearly have far too much spare time & not enough to do.

    --
    Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
  6. When reading this... by Omniscious · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...one question comes to mind: Is psychology really a science?

  7. How to choose a roommate by their email address by MobyDisk · · Score: 2, Funny

    A friend of mine and I were looking for a 3rd room mate to share the costs with. We previously had a female friend of ours and we got along just fine (she got married and moved out) so we figured male or female was okay, so long as the personalities matched-up. So he put an ad online.

    One of the responses was from a girl who said she was fun and easy to get along with and had no problem rooming with guys. My friend was about to call her, but I noticed that her email address was some sort of obfuscated leet-speak, and after staring at it for a moment I realized it was her bra size + some other personality attributes. I decifered it and did a google search only to find some prom pictures that would make a porn star blush. We decided to keep searching. (Yes, many readers will call me crazy for that. Choose your roommates carefully guys.)

    Lesson learned: email addresses can say a lot about someone.

    1. Re:How to choose a roommate by their email address by Grashnak · · Score: 3, Funny

      One of the responses was from a girl who said she was fun and easy to get along with and had no problem rooming with guys. My friend was about to call her, but I noticed that her email address was some sort of obfuscated leet-speak, and after staring at it for a moment I realized it was her bra size + some other personality attributes. I decifered it and did a google search only to find some prom pictures that would make a porn star blush.

      So, of course, you called her immediately and asked her when she could move in?

      You tell this story like it was a bad thing...

      --
      Life needs more saving throws.
  8. Re:"Sexy". by larry+bagina · · Score: 4, Funny

    also, if he's got "creepy" in his username...

    --
    Do you even lift?

    These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

  9. So I guess this means by SirLurksAlot · · Score: 5, Funny

    that if you have multiple email addresses you have multiple personalities?

    --
    God, schmod. I want my monkey man!
  10. Chair alert by elgatozorbas · · Score: 4, Funny

    If his/her address is s.ballmer@microsoft.com, they might be short-tempered.

  11. easy! by cashman73 · · Score: 5, Funny
    You could almost guess personalities by domain names:
    • Any email address ending in @fark.com means the user is an alcoholic; double whammy if you've got drew@fark.com.
    • Any email address ending in @aol.com means the user is a clueless n00b, and should probably be shot to spare them of their misery online.
    • If you're email address ends in, @yale.edu, or @duke.edu, that means that the user is some rich punk living off of mommy and daddy's trust fund,...
    • Email addresses ending in @mit.edu or @cmu.edu are for nerds and geeks.
    • Any email address ending in @*.info is not a real person.
    • If you're email address is president@whitehouse.gov, you're just a dumb Texan who enjoys surfing these "series of tubes" known as the "internets" and fscking the country over and over,...
    • If you're email address ends in @house.gov, @senate.gov, or @riaa.org you're most likely a criminal.
    1. Re:easy! by cashman73 · · Score: 4, Funny
      Oops! Forgot one!

      If you're email address contains the words "anonymous" and/or "coward", you're apparently either an anal-retentive grammar nazi, or you like to pick apart people's jokes until they're not funny anymore,...

    2. Re:easy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      I think the key you're missing here is that it wasn't funny in the first place.

  12. Inferring Personality From Useless Studies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Scientists" have discovered that 9/10 people can deduce the personality of people by the studies they are conducting.

    "People judge me as having a God complex," Dr C. Heesenfeed commented, "mostly because I have mice running through mazes all day. But my studies have proven that 87% of all mice will go for a delicous piece of Emmental rather than for Brie. Cheese produces claimed that I was biased towards the rich and full flavour of the delicious Emmental, as opposed to plain old Brie. My friends avoid me these days because I always play with mice."

    But statistical analysis has indeed shown that most people judge scientists by their statistical studies. 50% of people find most studies frivolous or useless, 30% found them to be an utter waste of time, while only 20% responded they liked to read about pointless statistics in the newspaper.

    "People tell me that sometimes I'm really out there,", spoke Dr W. Ellhung, "especially when I tell them about my studies into the mating behavior in humans and finding a link between what food people eat. It's not really out there, because I've found sufficient evidence that eating very large amounts of chili on a regular interval decreases your chances of scoring... I mean, decreases the attraction coefficient."

    According to an anonymous source "Statistics don't always have to be meaningless. When interpreted correctly they can be very useful, for example, I am currently trying to predict next week lottery numbers by calculating the chance that a certain number will be picked using collected data from over 25 years. When I'm a millionaire, no one will be laughing with me anymore. I'll show them, or my name isn't Pjotr Orb'stard". He was then seen running towards the exit while laughing diabolically before impacting against the automatic door. "What are the odds of that happening to me???" he yelled.

    What are the odds indeed

  13. Re:Your address DOES say a lot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    One of my favorites, though, is the story of a guy applying for a job at Yahoo! He registered the email account "iwanttowork(@yahoo.com)," and used that to send his resume. They hired him.

    I live in Sweden, and here the unemployment benefits are great. One of the conditions for receiving benefits is that you keep looking for a job...
    Hence, I was once presented with an application sent from a guy with the illustrious address of lazybastard@coffebreak [rest of address withheld].

    True story.

  14. Re:meh by ZerdZerd · · Score: 2, Funny

    Personality never changes, legoman666! Once a legoman666, always a legoman666.

    --
    I'm not insane! My mother had me tested.
  15. That's why I use my fullname and SSN... by rivaldufus · · Score: 4, Funny

    as my email address. That way, anyone can learn anything they want to know about me.

  16. Re:Your address DOES say a lot by drspliff · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hrm, I should try that, after a series of unfortunate events I'm now unemployed and thinking of signing on for benefits.

    mentally.unstable@i-kill-kittens.domain

  17. Re:What does mine say... by Whiney+Mac+Fanboy · · Score: 3, Funny

    Mac user.

    --
    There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
  18. Well... by MetaPhyzx · · Score: 2, Funny

    We all can't be ladiesman217.... :)

    --
    Blacker than my baby girl's stare. Black like the veil that the muslimina wear. Black like the planet that they fear...
  19. Re:"Sexy". by sm62704 · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...says the guy whose username starts with "Mrs" and ends with "Guido"?

    --
    mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
  20. Re:And That's Why I hate Making new Email Address! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Poster's real name: John Smith

  21. Re:Serious email addresses... by joebellis · · Score: 3, Funny

    One person that I had business dealings with had stoned@... for his business email address. The firm's email addy convention was lastname, first initial. It did make for intersesting conference calls. Later it was changed to lastname.firstname as he moved up in the company.

  22. Re:That's... ridiculous. by famebait · · Score: 2, Funny

    It reads "aspergers" loud and clear, dude.

    --
    sudo ergo sum
  23. Re:And That's Why I hate Making new Email Address! by Anne_Nonymous · · Score: 3, Funny

    You've got a good start your name and DOB in there, but if you really want to obfuscate and anonymize you need to add your social security number.

  24. Re:Ummm by BrotherBeal · · Score: 5, Funny

    Creationists.

    --
    I'm disabling ads until because I choose not to reward redesigns that are less usable than "view source".
  25. Re:German humour by Bloke+down+the+pub · · Score: 2, Funny

    I still feel insulted a little when I read things like these.

    You started it!

    --
    It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.
  26. Re:German humour by severoon · · Score: 4, Funny

    I still feel insulted a little when I read things like these.

    So let me get this straight. I'm guessing you are probably of German descent, and you're insulted that someone was coyly and humorously teasing Germans...for lacking a sense of humor?

    I just wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything... :-p

    --
    but have you considered the following argument: shut up.
  27. Re:German humour by RancidPeanutOil · · Score: 2, Funny

    Ha ha rofl! Stop it, you're killing me! My mountain dew came right out of my nose when I saw your articulate protestations and well-cited hypertext links. Subtle, but appreciated.

  28. Re:German humour by rduke15 · · Score: 3, Funny

    But that was Austrian humour