Your Facebook page tells about your personality

Washington: Want to know what kind of a person you are? Then, make a query on your Facebook page, as how you use the social networking site can reveal your personality, a new study has claimed.

Researchers at the University of Missouri have developed a new scale that judges people's personality based on how they use the popular social media site.

The scale reveals that those who like high-risk activity tend to update their status, upload photos and interact with friends frequently. While conversely, those who are more reserved tend to merely scroll through Facebook's "news feed", and don't upload photos or actively engage with their friends.

The researchers developed the scale after surveying people about their use of Facebook and having them take a personality test.

Those who leaned toward high-risk activities were labelled as "appetitive," with those who were more reserved in their activities labelled as "aversive." While both personality types use Facebook frequently, a significant difference was found in how each uses the social media site, Heather Shoenberger, who led the study, said.

"If you're highly 'appetitive' or lean toward high-risk activities, you're more likely to want to engage with media that are more exciting, whereas those who are higher in the aversive trait tend to enjoy safer and more predictable media experiences," Shoenberger was quoted as saying by LiveScience.

The scale could help advertisers target online audiences easier, according to Shoenberger.

"I believe this could really help advertisers and certain types of media groups target potential customers with particular ads on social media sites," Shoenberger said.

"Identifying these individuals using the motivation activation measure can give advertisers an advantage over their competitors and bring some order to online advertising."

For example, she says companies that want to target consumers for a high-risk activity should try to determine who is active on Facebook and frequently posting pictures and updating their status.

The findings were presented at the International Communication Association Conference in Phoenix.