Computers in

Human Behavior
Computers in Human Behavior 22 (2006) 283–293
www.elsevier.com/locate/comphumbeh

An investigation of Big Five and

narrow personality traits in relation to
Internet usage
Richard N. Landers, John W. Lounsbury *

Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996 0900, USA

Available online 3 September 2004

Abstract

The relationship between Internet usage and the Big Five as well as three narrow person-
ality traits was examined using 117 undergraduates as study participants. Results indicated
that total Internet usage was negatively related to three of the Big Five traits – Agreeableness,
Conscientiousness, and Extraversion as well as two narrow traits – Optimism and Work
Drive, and positively related to Tough-Mindedness. The results of a hierarchical regression
analysis indicated that Work Drive added significantly to Extraversion and Conscientious
in the prediction of total Internet usage, producing a multiple correlation of 0.349
(p < 0.01). Results were discussed individually by trait, in terms of broad versus narrow per-
sonality traits, and regarding suggestions for future research.
Ó 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Big five; Broad and narrow traits; Internet usage; Work drive; Optimism; Tough-mindedness

1. Introduction

In recent years, there has emerged a limited, but growing, research literature on
personality traits in relation to Internet usage (e.g., Hamburger & Ben-Artzi, 2000;

*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-865-577-6089; fax: +1-865-974-3330.
E-mail address: jlounsbury@aol.com (J.W. Lounsbury).

0747-5632/$ - see front matter Ó 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.chb.2004.06.001
284 R.N. Landers, J.W. Lounsbury / Computers in Human Behavior 22 (2006) 283–293

Leung, 2002; Scealy, Phillips, & Stevenson, 2002). There are several important rea-
sons why this area of research merits attention. Personality traits represent relatively
enduring characteristics of individuals that show consistencies over their lifespans
and across a wide range of situations (Pervin & John, 1997; Shaffer, 2000). Moreover,
personality traits have been found to be related to a broad spectrum of human activ-
ities and types of behavior, including school attendance (McShane, Walter, & Rey,
2001), gambling behavior (Blaszczynski, Walker, Sagris, & Dickerson, 1999), parent–
infant bed sharing (Kelmanson, 1999), confessing to crimes in police interroga-
tions (Watanabe & Yokota, 1999), blood donations (Paunonen & Nicol, 2001),
housing behavior (Sweaney, Pittman, & Montgomery, 1984), music listening prefer-
ences (Rentfrow & Gosling, 2003), leadership behavior (Judge & Bono, 2000),
behavioral aggression (Wu & Clark, 2003), television-viewing (Persegani et al.,
2002), drug use (Sussman, McCuller, & Dent, 2003), sexual behavior (Kalichman,
Chain, Zweben, & Swain, 2003), job performance (Barrick & Mount, 1991), and par-
ticipation in sports (Freixanet, 1999; OÕSullivan, Zuckerman, & Kraft, 1998). As
usage of the Internet is regularly engaged in by many individuals in all walks of life,
(NTIA Release, 2000), it is a logical area to investigate from a personality perspec-
tive, particularly since level of usage is often discretionary rather than mandated,
and thus more likely to reflect personal motives, needs, values, preferences and other
personality attributes.
In addition, from the perspective of individual development, personality pre-
cedes many of the other variables that can and have been studied in relation to
the Internet, including attitudes toward the Internet (Lavin, Marvin, McLarney,
Nola, & Scott, 1999), computer expertise (Blair, OÕNeil, & Price, 1999), computer
training (Rozell & Gardner, 1999), time management (Brenner, 1997), social sup-
port (Shaw & Gant, 2002), lifestyle characteristics (Ho & Lee, 2001), advertising
beliefs (Korgaonkar, Silverblatt, & OÕLeary, 2001), tutoring systems (Wheeler &
Regian, 1999), information support (Scull, 1999), collaborative knowledge (Chung,
OÕNeil, & Herl, 1999), innovation adoption factors (Shelley, 1998), and computer
anxiety (Chua, Chen, & Wong, 1999) and other computer-related affective states
(Coffin & MacIntyre, 1999). From the standpoint of creating a meaningful knowl-
edge base in this area, it is important to establish first whether personality traits
account for variation in Internet usage, and which traits are relatively more
important. It will then be important to assess which variables explain additional
variance in Internet usage above and beyond that accounted for by personality
traits.
The present study addresses the relationship between personality traits and Inter-
net usage. It is important to consider first the issue of what personality traits to
investigate in relation to Internet usage, since there are so many different traits
to choose from in the broader psychological literature. Fortunately, there is a gen-
eral consensus regarding the Big Five model as a unified, parsimonious conceptual
framework for personality (Digman, 1990, 1997; Wiggins & Trapnell, 1997). Empir-
ical studies have verified the overall factor structure and integrity of the Big Five
constructs of Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neur-
oticism in many different settings and areas of inquiry (Costa & McCrae, 1994;
 R.N. Landers, J.W. Lounsbury / Computers in Human Behavior 22 (2006) 283–293 285

De Raad, 2000). We therefore chose to examine the Big Five traits in relation to
Internet usage.
There is, however, a growing debate about whether validity relationships can be en-
hanced by considering narrow personality traits in addition to the broad, Big Five
constructs (e.g. Ashton, 1998; Ones & Viswesvaran, 2001; Paunonen, Rothstein, &
Jackson, 1999; Schneider, Hough, & Dunnette, 1996). For the present study, we used
two criteria to select narrow traits likely to add variance beyond the Big Five: (1) trait
definition and meaning not readily subsumed by accepted Big Five taxonomies (e.g.
De Raad, 2000; Digman, 1990); and, since our study involves college students, (2)
established, empirical relationships with academic performance. Based on prior re-
search by the second author (Lounsbury et al., 2003; Lounsbury, Loveland, & Gibson,
2002), we selected three narrow traits for inclusion in the present study – Optimism,
Tough-Mindedness, and Work Drive. These traits can briefly be summarized as: Opti-
mism – a generalized predisposition toward positive expectations, Tough-Mindedness
– appraising information and making decisions based on logic and facts rather than
feelings and intuition, and Work Drive – disposition to work long hours and expend
extra time and effort to meet achievement-related goals (for more detailed definitions,
see Lounsbury & Gibson, 2002; Lounsbury et al., 2002).
Before turning to the specific objectives of the present study, we consider the ex-
tant research on personality traits and Internet usage. Scealy et al. (2002) found that
shyness was related to specific types of Internet usage. Leung (2002) found that lone-
liness was not significantly correlated with usage of the online instant messaging pro-
gram, ICQ (‘‘I seek you,’’), but was related to amount of self-disclosure. Armstrong,
Phillips, and Saling (2000) found that low self-esteem was related to heavy Internet
usage. Hamburger and Ben-Artzi (2000) found that extraversion and neuroticism
were related to different types of Internet usage.
Research Questions
We addressed three research questions:

(1) Are the Big Five personality traits related to Internet usage (including overall
usage and usage by category)?
(2) Are the narrow personality traits of Optimism, Tough-Mindedness, and Work
Drive related to overall Internet usage?
(3) Do the narrow traits add incremental validity beyond the Big Five traits in
accounting for overall Internet usage?

2. Methods

2.1. Participants

The research setting for this study was a large state university in Tennessee, with
117 undergraduates in a lower-division psychology course serving as participants,
with 41% male, 59% female; 24% aged 18 years, 44% 19 years, 15% 20 years, 8%
286 R.N. Landers, J.W. Lounsbury / Computers in Human Behavior 22 (2006) 283–293

21 years, and 9% 22 years or more; 82% Caucasian, 9% African–American, 1% His-

panic, 4% Asian–American, and 4% ‘‘Other.’’

2.2. Measures

2.2.1. Personality
The measure of personality, the Adolescent Personal Style Inventory or APSI
(Lounsbury et al., 2003) is applicable for adolescents through college age and incor-
porates measures of the Big Five traits of Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraver-
sion, Agreeableness, and Emotional Stability as well as the narrow traits of
Optimism, Tough-Mindedness, and Work Drive (for further details, see Lounsbury
et al., 2003).
Variables for the personality traits consisted of summed scores based on individ-
ual items set on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5
(strongly agree) with a midpoint of 3 (neutral/undecided).

2.2.2. Internet usage

In view of the ease of usage and validity of self-reported Internet usage (Deane,
Podd, & Henderson, 1998), we measured usage of the Internet as a self-report item
on a eight-point scale with response choices as follows: (1) less than 1 h per week, (2)
less than 5 h per week, (3) less than 1 h per day, (4) at least 1 h per day, (5) between 1
and 3 h per day, (6) between 3 and 5 h per day, (7) between 5 and 10 h per day, and
(8) more than 10 h per day.
Following previous research which broadly categorizes types of Internet usage
(Hamburger & Ben-Artzi, 2000; OÕDell, Korgen, Schumacher, & Delucchi, 2000),
we asked respondents to indicate the percent of time they typically spent each week
on the Internet that was devoted to: Communication (including E-mail and Chat),
Leisure (including music, role-playing, shopping), and Academic (research, course
participation on-line).

2.3. Procedure

Approval to conduct this research was secured from the university Institutional
Review Board. Participants were recruited by posting a signup on a bulletin board
in the campus Psychology building. Students were offered extra credit for their par-
ticipation. Students met with an experimenter in various buildings across campus,
where informed consent forms and the questionnaires were distributed. After signing
the informed consent forms, participants took the questionnaire.

3. Results

Table 1 displays the coefficient alphas for the eight personality variables along
with their intercorrelations and correlations with overall Internet usage. Five person-
 R.N. Landers, J.W. Lounsbury / Computers in Human Behavior 22 (2006) 283–293 287

Table 1
Coefficient alphaÕs and intercorrelations of study variables
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)
Agreeableness (1) (0.70) 0.14 0.24** 0.31** 0.02 0.39** 0.20* 0.23* 0.23*
Conscientiousness (2) (0.84) 0.0.02 0.07 0.18 0.16 0.13 0.44** 0.21*
Emotional stability (3) (0.84) 0.24** 0.11 0.43** 0.37** 0.10 0.02
Extraversion (4) (0.80) 0.27** 0.29** 0.12 0.05 0.21*
Openness (5) (0.77) 0.15 0.25** 0.26** 0.08
Optimism (6) (0.76) 0.09 0.23* 0.22*
Tough-mindedness (7) (0.79) 0.35** 0.20*
Work drive (8) (0.80) 0.26**
Internet usage (9) –
n = 117. Values in the diagonal represent CronbachÕs coefficient alpha reliability coefficient.
* p < 0.05.
** p < 0.01.

ality traits were significantly negatively related to total Internet usage: Agreeableness
(r = 0.23, p < 0.05), Conscientiousness (r = 0.21, p < 0.05), Extraversion
(r = 0.21, p < 0.05), Optimism (r = 0.22, p < 0.05), and Work Drive (r = 0.26,
p < 0.01). Also, Tough-Mindedness was positively correlated with Internet usage
(r = 0.20, p < 0.05).
To examine the question of incremental validity of the narrow personality traits in
relation to the Big Five in predicting Internet usage, we performed a hierarchical
regression analysis in which the Big Five measures were allowed to enter stepwise
in a set, followed by the three narrow traits measures which were allowed to enter
stepwise in the second set. As can be seen in Table 2, the results of this analysis re-
vealed that Extraversion and Conscientiousness significantly entered the equation to
predict Internet usage with a multiple correlation of R = 0.285 (p < 0.01). In the sec-
ond step, Work Drive significantly entered the equation producing a multiple corre-
lation of R = 0.349 (p < 0.01). The two Big Five traits of Extraversion and
Conscientiousness together accounted for 8% of the variance in Internet usage, with
Work Drive adding an additional 4% of the variance in Internet usage.
Table 3 displays the correlations between the eight personality variables and the
percent of time spent in the three categories of Internet usage – Social, Leisure, and
Academic. Conscientiousness and Work Drive were both significantly and negatively

Table 2
Results of multiple regression analysis with Big Five and Narrow Traits predicting Internet usage
Dependent Variable: Internet Usage
Step Variable Multiple R R2 R2 change
1 Big Five traits (Extraversion, Conscientiousness) 0.285** 0.081** 0.081**
2 Work Drive 0.349** 0.122** 0.041*
n = 117.
* p < 0.05.
** p < 0.01.
288 R.N. Landers, J.W. Lounsbury / Computers in Human Behavior 22 (2006) 283–293

Table 3
Intercorrelations of personality variables with percent time spent on the Internet by category of usage
Percent time spent on
Communication Leisure Academic
Agreeableness 0.01 0.06 0.02
Conscientiousness 0.01 0.18* 0.19*
Emotional stability 0.10 0.06 0.02
Extraversion 0.07 0.12 0.10
Openness 0.02 0.17 0.10
Optimism 0.02 0.07 0.01
Tough-mindedness 0.09 0.12 0.10
Work drive 0.06 0.24** 0.10
n = 117.
* p < 0.05.
** p < 0.01.

related to percent of Internet time spent on Leisure (r = 0.18, p < 0.05 and
r = 0.24, p < 0.01, respectively), whereas Conscientiousness was significantly, pos-
itively related to percent usage for Academic purposes (r = 0.18, p < 0.05).

4. Discussion

The present results showed that three of the Big Five personality traits – Agree-
ableness, Conscientiousness, and Extraversion – were inversely related to Internet
usage. In other words, more introverted, less agreeable, and less conscientious stu-
dents engaged in higher levels of Internet usage. In view of the conceptual specifica-
tion of the construct of Introversion–Extraversion, there are several possible
explanations for this result: More extraverted students may be spending their discre-
tionary time in more social activities that do not involve computer or Internet usage.
Conversely, introverted students may have more free time to engage in Internet
usage or they may be more attracted to Internet usage because it is an activity where
they can focus their attention and quietly immerse themselves in what is essentially
solitary behavior. Further explanation of this finding is a topic that could be ad-
dressed by future research.
The negative relationship between Agreeableness and Internet usage may reflect
students who do not get along well with other students choosing to spend more time
on the Internet rather than in interpersonal settings, or they may be less frequently
sought out for group activities by other students and, thus, have more time available
for Internet usage compared to students scoring higher on Agreeableness. Also, unlike
face-to-face interpersonal settings, there are relatively few demands for agreeable
behavior on the Internet, even in E-mail exchanges and chat rooms, which would
make this environment more fitting for less agreeable students.
The negative relationship between Conscientiousness and Internet usage is inter-
esting and raises several questions. Let us first consider what this finding means:
 R.N. Landers, J.W. Lounsbury / Computers in Human Behavior 22 (2006) 283–293 289

Based on commonly accepted conceptualizations of the Conscientiousness construct

(e.g., De Raad, 2000), we interpret this result as indicating that students who are
more rule-following, organized, reliable, and structured report lower levels of Inter-
net usage than less conscientious students. Why might this be? One possible explana-
tion is the wide-open, unstructured environment of the Internet with its absence of
rules and policies (Kiesler, Siegal, & McGuire, 1984; King, 1999) may appeal more
to less conscientious students. In this regard, the Internet may be a better fit with
their personality. Or, it may be that more conscientious students are more engaged
in structured activities like participation in clubs and organizations, studying for
classes, writing papers, etc. In support of this idea, we note that Conscientiousness
was positively related to relative Internet usage for Academic purposes, but nega-
tively related to relative usage for Leisure functions. It should be noted that many
student activities reflecting Conscientiousness, such as writing papers and storing
class notes, may involve computer usage but not Internet usage. One topic for future
research would be to examine whether a similar relationship to Conscientiousness
holds for computer usage as distinct from Internet usage. A broader topic of interest
would be to investigate personality-Internet usage in terms of person–environment
fit, where perceptions of the Internet are related to personality attributes.
Consistent with other areas of personality research (e.g., Moberg, 1998; Paunonen
& Ashton, 2001; Paunonen & Nicol, 2001; Schneider et al., 1996), the present results
show that narrow personality traits are also related to Internet usage and, in the case
of Work Drive, add significantly to the prediction of Internet usage above and be-
yond the Big Five traits. More specifically, we can interpret the narrow-trait relation-
ships as indicating that students who are more pessimistic, tender-minded, and
disinclined to work hard academically used the Internet more frequently. Although
many possible explanations for each of these findings might be advanced, we offer
the following: First, more pessimistic students might be attracted to Internet usage
to confirm their negative expectations or to share perceptions and beliefs with
like-minded pessimists. In this vein, at least one observer has noted that Internet sup-
porters have a pessimistic disposition (Godrich, 2003). Second, students who are
more tough-minded may be more likely to engage in Internet usage because it is
an arena where feelings and sentiments do not come much into play and one can
base oneÕs actions on logic, facts, and critical thinking. Third, the negative relation-
ship between Work Drive and Internet usage may simply reflect that students who
spend a lot of time on the Internet do so at the expense of time that could be spent
studying hard and exerting extra effort to make good grades. Indeed, the significant
negative correlation between Work Drive and percent Internet time classified as
Leisure supports the notion that Internet usage is motivated by non-work (i.e., lei-
sure) pursuits. Also, frequent Internet usage may not be functional for more hard-
working students. Along these lines, employees who engage in non-essential Internet
usage on the job have been considered as having a lower work ethic (Ritterskamp,
2003).
Overall, the results of the present investigation have demonstrated the relation-
ship of selected Big Five personality traits as well as narrow personality traits to
Internet usage. At present, researchers in this area may well choose to study all
290 R.N. Landers, J.W. Lounsbury / Computers in Human Behavior 22 (2006) 283–293

of the Big Five traits, because different results may emerge in different research
contexts and because use of the Big Five affords researchers a common vocabulary
and metric for understanding personality dynamics across a wide range of settings
(c.f. Mershon & Gorsuch, 1988). On the other hand, the present findings also indi-
cate that researchers who want to maximize validity relationships should include
narrow personality traits in addition to the broad Big Five factors. We recommend
that researchers in this area consider using ‘‘multidimensional composites’’ (Pau-
nonen & Nicol, 2001), comprised of both broad traits such as the Big Five and
narrow personality measures. Future research on individual dispositions related
to Internet usage can potentially explore a variety of narrow personality traits,
too numerous to catalog here. In addition, the use of personality dimensions con-
textualized to computer as well as Internet usage may prove useful in elaborating
validity relationships in this area of inquiry (see, e.g., Schmit, Ryan, Stierwalt, &
Powell, 1995).
There are several limitations of the present study. First, the study was limited to
psychology undergraduate students at a single university. Also, the sample size was
modest and did not permit disaggregated analyses by other demographic/personal
factors such as sex, year in school, and intellectual ability. Third, we did not measure
the actual amount of time spent in different areas of Internet usage, which could re-
veal different patterns of relationship to personality traits than percent of total time
spent on the Internet. For example, 10% of time spent on the Internet for academic
purposes may reflect very different psychological dynamics for someone who spends
a few minutes a day on the Internet versus someone who spends several hours every
day. Additionally, the participants were students seeking extra credit for completing
the inventory, and we do not know if the findings are generalizable to students not
receiving extra credit or to students who do not volunteer to participate. Finally, we
were unable to ascertain if our measure of Internet usage was range-restricted in our
particular sample, which could have lowered the magnitude of the observed
correlations.
Further research is needed to verify, clarify, and extend the present results. In par-
ticular, it will be important to know if the relationships we observed can be repli-
cated in both similar and different settings. Also, future research in this area may
identify other narrow personality traits related to Internet usage, though we would
recommend that such efforts include an examination of incremental validity beyond
the Big Five. Finally, it will be interesting to see if the effects of other constructs and
factors on Internet usage can be assessed after taking into account effects attributa-
ble to personality variables.

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