Associations Between Reading Habits and “Big Five” Personality Traits in Adults

Author Information

Eugen Zaretsky, Marburg University, Germany
Benjamin P. Lange, IU International University, Germany

Abstract

Reading habits vary across nations, continents, and social strata. They depend on educational level, biological sex, and many other individual characteristics. In the current study, reading habits were analysed regarding their associations with personality traits of test subjects irrespective of their national background. A total of 935 German-, Russian-, and English-speaking adults filled out online questionnaires on their reading habits. The “BFI-10 Personality Questionnaire” was utilized to assess personality traits of the test subjects: extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, openness, and agreeableness. BFI-10 questionnaire scores were correlated with numerous items regarding preferred genres, possession of books, attitude to reading books and other literature etc. The most important personality traits were scrutinized by classification trees. People who believe to be conscientious, i.e. to do a thorough job, read more because they have to read at/for work. People with an active imagination (openness) possess, buy and read more books, would like to write or have already written a book, and describe themselves as well-read. People who consider themselves as extraverts (i.e., outgoing and social) tend to possess and read less books, but prefer audiobooks. Most BFI-10 items showed very few statistically significant correlations. All correlations were low. Personality traits documented in the BFI-10 questionnaire are weakly associated with reading habits. However, people who describe themselves as those who usually do a thorough job (conscientiousness) and have an active imagination (openness) read more. People who consider themselves sociable (extraversion) read less. Neuroticism and agreeableness showed almost no links to reading habits.

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