The impact of personality traits on users' information-seeking behavior

Although personality traits may influence information-seeking behavior, little is known about this topic. This study explored the impact of the Big Five personality traits on human online information seeking. For this purpose, it examined changes in eye-movement behavior in a sample of 75 participants (36 male and 39 female; age: 22-39 years; experience conducting online searches: 5-12 years) across three types of information-seeking tasks - factual, exploratory, and interpretive. The International Personality Item Pool Representation of the NEO PI-R™ (IPIP-NEO) was used to assess the participants' personality profile. Hierarchical cluster analysis was used to categorize participants based on their personality traits. A three cluster solution was found (cluster one consists of participants who scored high in conscientiousness; cluster two consists of participants who scored high in agreeableness; and cluster three consists of participants who scored high in extraversion). Results revealed that individuals high in conscientiousness performed fastest in most information-seeking tasks, followed by those high in agreeableness and extraversion. This study has important practical implications for intelligent human - computer interfaces, personalization, and related applications.