Mouse movements reflect personality traits and task attentiveness in online experiments

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Digital Behavior Analysis

Background:

• Understanding online behavior is crucial in a digitized world.
• Personality traits influence user interactions and decision-making online.
• Cost-effective methods for assessing individual characteristics are needed.

Purpose of the Study:

• To test the feasibility of inferring personality traits from mouse movement patterns.
• To explore mouse movements as a method for measuring individual characteristics.
• To investigate the relationship between mouse movements, personality, and task attentiveness.

Main Methods:

• Collected mouse movement features (pauses, fixations, speed, clicks) from 791 participants.
• Utilized univariate and partial least squares (PLS) analyses to predict Big Five personality traits.
• Examined mouse movements' ability to predict task attentiveness (atypical responding).

Main Results:

• Significant associations found between personality traits (high Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Openness; low Neuroticism) and mouse movements indicating slower, deliberate responding.
• Mouse movements linked to deliberate responding included fewer unnecessary clicks and more fixations.
• Click-related mouse features were associated with atypical responding on the task.

Conclusions:

• Mouse movements can be used to infer personality traits across different experimental contexts.
• This approach offers a feasible and cost-effective method for assessing individual characteristics.
• Digital behavior, like mouse movements, provides insights into underlying psychological states.