What's REALLY on Your Mind?

Facebook asks for status updates and new photos every time users log in. According to a study by students in the psychology department, personality traits affect how these features are used.

Students worked with assistant psychology professor Shannon McGillivray to survey personality traits and Facebook habits of 194 participants.

Interestingly, individuals who are generally more open to new ideas were more likely to unfriend someone as the result of a controversial post. 

“That was one of the more counterintuitive discoveries we made,” McGillivray said. “It might make sense because perhaps you are slightly more liberal if you score highly on the openness dimension, which means you could take offense to people whose posts are very controversial or derogatory to certain groups.”