An anonymous viewing of your room may reveal your personality more than an interview with your friends do.
A study was done where people were asked to identify their friends’ levels of introversion/extroversion, agreeableness, contentiousness, emotional security, and openness to new experiences. Then, complete strangers were given an opportunity to guess those same traits about these people after spending a short time investigating the space in which they live. It turns out that strangers walking around your room are better at determining a majority of The 5 Big Personality Traits.
Better by friends (via “Thick Slicing”):
- Introversion vs extroversion
- Agreeableness
Better by strangers in your room: (via Thin Slicing)
- Conscientiousness
- Emotional security (neuroticism)
- Openness to new experiences