Who Is Interacting With Whom? Assessing the Relationship Between Personality Traits and Preferences for Interaction Partners in Real Life

Abstract

Individuals have different preferences to interact with other persons. These preferences may vary depending on the personality of a person and the perceived personality of their interaction partner(s). Using ecological momentary assessment (EMA), we tested whether the perception of personality traits in others predicts participants’ preferences for social interactions in everyday life, and how these preferences are shaped by individual personality traits (extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness) of the participants themselves. More specifically, we hypothesized that the preference to interact may increase if the interaction partner is perceived as extraverted and agreeable and may decrease if the other is perceived as scoring high on neuroticism. Based on mixed findings regarding preferences for similar vs. dissimilar personality profiles of interaction partners, we further expected interactions between participants’ personality and the interaction partners’ personality in relation to the preference to interact. To test these hypotheses, 130 participants answered up to six surveys on a smartphone on seven consecutive days. As predicted, higher levels of partner extraversion and agreeableness were related to increased preference to interact, while partner neuroticism showed the opposite effect. Similarly, participants scoring high on agreeableness showed higher and participants scoring high on neuroticism showed lower preferences to interact. Analyses regarding the interactions between the participants’ and the partners’ personality traits revealed that extraverts preferred other extraverts and agreeable individuals preferred interaction partners with perceived neuroticism. In conclusion, this study showed that the preference to interact with a person has a differential function depending on the personality traits of the interacting persons.