Welcome to our June newsletter.

We see who pays attention to positive words.

What personality traits affect whether people invest or not?

There's a new way to measure personality and we see a scientific explanation of why people take selfies (and it's not just vanity).

Don't forget we're here to help. From improving your marketing with psychology and data to making your communications more persuasive. Tell us what you're trying to do and we'll show you how we can help.

Every so often we use our Monkey Business newsletter to share useful nuggets, opinions, and findings as food for thought. Sign up here.

A new way to measure personality

What if there were no personality factors?

This paper took an innovative approach to personality, having people rate themselves on words that were as different from one another as possible (aiming for a wider distribution rather than similar words measuring underlying factors).
 

Photo by Alexander Grey

The predictive power of this 'crude-grit' set was generally higher.
 

Image: Altgasse, Olaru, Wilhelm

Why do people really take selfies?

A recent study sheds light on why people choose to include themselves in certain photos, and it is not always vanity. Researchers at The Ohio State University found that first-person photos, which capture the scene as it looks from one's own eyes, are best for representing the physical experience of an event. 

However, third-person photos, like selfies, are better for depicting the deeper meaning of the event in one's life. The study's lead author, Zachary Niese, noted that people have a natural intuition about which perspective to take when capturing what they want out of a photo. The researchers analysed more than 2,000 photos from Instagram to come to their conclusions. 

According to the researchers, including oneself in photos also serves as a way of documenting one's presence and participation in an event or place. It is also seen as a way of creating a personal narrative or memory of the experience.

However, the study also noted that individuals may refrain from including themselves in photos when they feel uncomfortable or insecure about their appearance or when they feel like they don't belong in a particular setting.
 

Photo by Polina Tankilevitch

Does personality determine whether people invest?

This study included thousands of investors to look at this very question.

Do the "big five" personality traits correlate with beliefs about the stock market and economy, as well as risk preferences?

It turns out that it does.

Anxious conservatives are less likely to invest

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

The researchers explain": "Two personality traits, Neuroticism and Openness, stand out in their explanatory power for equity investments. Investors with high Neuroticism and those with low Openness tend to allocate less investment to equities."

Image: Jiang et al

Agreeable people pay more attention to positive words

Agreeable people - who are trusting and cooperative - pay more attention to positive words like "joy", according to this study which used eye-tracking while people silently read sentences.

Photo by Guilherme Almeida

Image: Johnson et al

As ever, if there's anything we can help with, do get in touch.

James, Patrick and Dan

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We practically apply the science of the human mind for hard, commercial results 

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