We’ve got something for everyone: How individual differences predict different blogging motivations

Abstract

The principal aims of this study were to develop a Blogging Motivations Questionnaire (BMQ) and to test the hypothesis that sex, age and personality would be associated with individual blogging motivations. A total of 160 bloggers completed the BMQ and the International Personality Item Pool. Six motivations for writing blogs were confirmed: personal revelation, emotional outlet, creative outlet, selective disclosure, social networking and advertising. Conscientiousness predicted the ‘social networking’ motivation, Agreeableness predicted ‘selective disclosure’ and Openness predicted ‘creative outlet’. Women were motivated by ‘selective disclosure’, and men for ‘advertising’ and as an ‘emotional outlet’. Finally, older bloggers were motivated to use their blogs as a ‘creative outlet’. With reference to the Uses and Gratifications theory, it is likely that bloggers actively construct blogs to satisfy very personal needs. Moreover, the types of needs that one wishes to satisfy are likely to vary with personality type and with one’s age and sex.