Hart Van Denburg
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I remember being rather excited when Facebook authorization came along. I wasn’t alone in thinking that if people have to use their Facebook accounts to make comments on blogs and news stories they would naturally be better behaved because they wouldn’t want to look like a fool in front of their 500 closest friends and family members. It wasn’t the panacea many had hoped for. Ultimately jerks are jerks.
ReadWriteWeb unearthed a study from the University of Texas Psychology Department that puts some meat on this feeling. Researchers found that the way people behave on Facebook mirrors how they are in real life.
“The study determined that online social networks are not an escape from reality, but rather a microcosm of peoples’ larger social worlds and an extension of offline behaviors,” writes RWW’s Alicia Eler.
Professor Samuel D. Gosling and his team focused on the Big Five personality traits that include openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
