Facebook profiles rarely stretch truth, study shows

Countering the notion that Internet users favour idealised virtual identities, a new study shows that people who join social networking sites such as Facebook create profiles that stick closely to the truth.

Members of such online networks may be more interested in fostering real communication and connections than peddling phony personalities, the researchers say.

“I was surprised by the findings, because the widely held assumption is that people are using their profiles to promote an enhanced impression of themselves,” study co-author Sam Gosling, a personality and social psychologist in the department of psychology at the University of Texas in Austin, said in a statement.

“But these findings suggest that online social networks are not so much about providing a positive spin for the profile owners, but are instead just another medium for engaging in genuine social interactions.”

The study is published in the February 17 online edition of Psychological Science.

According to the researchers, more than 700 million people have already posted profiles on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

Facebook alone lays claim to 400 million-plus active users, 70 per cent of whom reside outside the United States.

Collectively, these users share more than five billion pieces of content each week, and publish more than three billion photos each month, the site notes.

To gauge to what degree all this information accurately reflects the true personalities of those posting their profiles, the researchers saved and analysed the profiles of 133 American members of Facebook and 103 German members of that country’s popular “studiVZ” social network.

Undergraduate research assistants in both countries— none of whom knew the social network members—were recruited to review all the profiles for an unrestricted amount of time, and then rate their impressions.

In turn, the users themselves — all between the ages of 17 and 22 —underwent multiple personality tests.

In addition, four “well-acquainted friends” of each of the American Facebook users were also asked to describe their friend’s true personality.

Gathering all this information, the researchers then generated their own accurate and idealised personality profiles for each user, which they then stacked up against each member’s online profile.

Bottom-line: Gosling and his colleagues found no evidence that the people were using their social network profiles to promote idealised personalities. In fact, the research suggests that the apparent accuracy of member postings could explain why the sites have exploded in popularity.

“I think that being able to express personality accurately contributes to the popularity of online social networks in two ways,” Gosling said.