Perceived Applicability of a Big Five Personality Inventory for Computers

Anthropomorphism is the assignment of human traits to the behavior of computers. This may occur because humans are projecting their own mind onto the device. To measure this requires a direct comparison of mental traits, such as personality. This study seeks to determine if a personality inventory used for humans has items that can also be used to describe the perceived personality of computers. Participants rated the 50-Item IPIP Big Five Personality inventory for whether each question could describe a computer. Results show that only 16 of the items were rated at or above neutral in their ability to describe a computer. These items were validated with a factor analysis to show that they correspond to the dimensions of Conscientiousness and Openness in humans. This indicates that it may be possible to directly compare the ‘minds’ of humans and computers, but only on certain personality dimensions.