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Inferring Personality From Email Addresses

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the i-really-don't-even-care-for-tacos-that-much dept.

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."'

6 of 309 comments (clear)

  1. 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.

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  2. Re:How about... by Joe+the+Lesser · · Score: 5, Funny

    mmmm, chunky peanut butter....

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

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

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

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

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

    Creationists.

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