Personality Predictor

Psychologists have long suspected that the way we physically view the world is determined by our personality. For example, curious individuals tend to look around more, while open-minded people will gaze longer at abstract images. It’s no wonder, then, that scientists decided to test whether these unconscious eye movements can be analyzed using artificial intelligence (AI) to predict a person’s personality traits.

A total of 42 students were asked to complete a questionnaire that rates people within the “big five” personality categories: neuroticism, extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness. They were then given eye-tracking smart glasses to wear as they went about a normal routine of walking around campus and visiting a store. Although the test population was small, a few patterns emerged linking certain eye movements to specific personalities: Neurotic people typically blink faster, open-minded people exhibit bigger side-to-side movements and conscientious individuals showed larger fluctuations in pupil size.

Potential applications for such technology include personalizing interactions with robot companions, self-driving cars and even smartphones. But, as with any new technology, care must be taken to prevent information from being harvested and used without a user’s knowledge and consent, for example, to target political advertising based on personality.