Current Psychology

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00521-5

Exploring the relationship between personality structure

and smartphone usage
Vlad Burtăverde 1 & Sebastian Vlăsceanu 1 & Eugen Avram 1

# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019

Abstract
This study aimed to investigate the relationship between personality dispositions and actual and observed behavior expressed
through several smartphone apps categories (relying on a built-in function of the smartphone, the app usage from the battery
information menu), as well as to investigate the association between personality traits and the number of installed apps per
category. The research sample consisted of 341 participants that monitored their app usage. In addition, participants completed
measures related to personality structure (Big Five, HEXACO, and the Dark Triad). The findings of the study showed that
personality dispositions predicted smartphone apps usage in various categories such as entertainment apps, music apps, gaming
apps, business apps, e-health apps, and dating apps. In conclusion, this study showed that actual behavior expressed through
various app categories is associated with broad and important personality dimensions. The findings of this research can be useful
in integrating actual behavior in psychological research.

Keywords Personality structure . Smartphone usage . App usage . Big five

A main aim of personality research is to predict and interpret
behavior by relying on individual differences (Furr 2009). In
this regard, most studies on this topic relied on self-reported
behaviors in order to assess personality. The self-report ap-
proach received various criticism, researchers arguing that
personality psychology rarely deals with observable behavior
(Baumeister et al. 2007), highlighting that personality research
mostly deals with assessments about how people think they
behave rather than their actual behavior (Stachl et al. 2017).
However, taking into account the abstract and latent nature of
psychological characteristics, personality researchers still con-
sider self-reported behavior an acceptable compromise in the
case of personality assessment, as it has been shown that self-
report measures are useful in predicting behavioral outcomes
(Paulhus and Vazire 2007).
Though the self-report is a valid personality assessment
tool, it is considered to have serious limitations. Firstly, the
predictive power of self-report measures for various observed
behaviors is deemed to be weak (Morgeson et al. 2007).
* Vlad Burtăverde
vlad.burtaverde@gmail.com
1
Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of
Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
Secondly, depending on the aim of the research, for example
in contexts with high-stakes for the assessed individual, per-
sonality assessments that rely on self-reported behavior may
be subjected to various distortions such as socially desirable
responding, acquiescent responding, and extreme responding
(Paulhus and Vazire 2007). Other limitations of self-reported
behavior refer to constraints on self-knowledge. Various re-
searchers showed that individuals are not fully able to recall all
the essential information relevant to a posed question
(Dunning et al. 2005). Furthermore, it was argued that tradi-
tional personality assessment instruments lead to within-
person inconsistency (Lievens et al. 2008). A possible expla-
nation refers to the schematic theories of item responding,
assuming that an individual implicitly compares the content
of each test item with a cognitive schema that offers a cogni-
tive context for processing relevant self-information. It is be-
lieved that respondents tend to use cognitive schemas to per-
form a selective memory search to find self-relevant informa-
tion. As a consequence, when responding to a personality
item, an individual activates auto-biographic cognitive
schemas that are relevant for the situation described by the
item and for the performance of the individual that suits him
best. The same individual may activate various cognitive
schemas (work situations, social, family,) when responding
to items that do not refer to a specific context, as is in the case
of general personality measures (Lievens et al. 2008).

The advances in technology impacted psychological re-
search as well. Researchers argued that the above-mentioned
limitation of the self-report method can be overcome by using
technology in behavioral assessment (Gosling and Mason
2015). For example, a considerable amount of behavioral data
is available on smartphones (Yarkoni 2012). Researchers
showed that communication data available on smartphones,
such as messages and calls, is useful in understanding individ-
ual differences in personality (Montag et al. 2015). Another
relevant source of information important to individual differ-
ences in personality is provided by apps usage (Stachl et al.
2017). To this date, millions of smartphone apps offer users
the opportunity to read, search for information, date, have fun,
interact with their acquaintances and relatives (Statistia 2018).
Relying on the trait-dispositional approach of personality
(Goldberg 1990) individuals characterized by high scores on
a certain personality trait should behave in a manner specific
to that trait in a variety of context and daily life situations. As a
consequence, important individual differences relevant to per-
sonality research can be found on a device that is used daily by
the majority of people. This rationale is sustained by research
which showed that Big Five personality factors had a negative
indirect effect on problematic internet use and problematic
social media use through psychological needs (Özteke
Kozan et al. 2019). Due to the high popularity of smartphones,
this individual differences related information can be easily
collected unobtrusively and used in research and practical
psychological assessment settings (Vazire 2010). To date, re-
searchers have conducted several studies regarding
smartphone usage and individual differences. The topic of
smartphone usage and personality was pursued relying on 2
main approaches: (1) self-reports on smartphone usage and
personality (Kim et al. 2015) and (2) logged user behavior
linked with self-reported personality scores (Xu et al. 2016;
de Montjoye et al. 2013). In this regard, it is important to know
if self-reported estimations of smartphone use lead to valid
data. Several studies tested the convergence between self-
reported estimations and objective measures of smartphone
use. Andrews et al. (2015) found that self-report estimations
regarding smartphone use reflected to a certain degree actual
use. However, estimations concerning the number of times an
individual used their phone across a typical day did not corre-
lated with actual smartphone use. Ellis et al. (2019) showed
that correlations between psychometric scales and objective
behavior are generally poor. This was also supported by
Wilcockson et al. (2018) who showed that objective
smartphone use did not correlate with self-reported estima-
tions. Rozgonjuk et al. (2018b) showed that self-reported
problematic smartphone use related to objectively measured
screen-time minutes, but not to phone screen unlocking. The
above mentioned studies suggest that self-reported estima-
tions of smartphone use are a weak method to gather
smartphone data, and objective measures should be preferred.
Curr Psychol
Regardless of the used approach, most studies explored the
associations between scores on various personality inventories
and various forms of apps usage (Chittaranjan et al. 2013).
The majority of these studies relied on the Big Five model
of personality as it is considered a personality models that
captures a high degree of individual differences related to
human personality (John et al. 2008).
Extraversion was positively associated with call duration,
call frequency and messaging (Butt and Phillips 2008;
Chittaranjan et al. 2013). It was also found that extraverted
individuals use more communication and social apps (Kim
et al. 2015). The same study showed that extraversion was
negatively associated with the usage of education and books
apps. Extraversion negatively correlated with browser usage
and was positively related to the use of entertainment apps
(Chittaranjan et al. 2013). Other authors found that extraver-
sion correlated negatively with the number of installed gaming
apps (Xu et al. 2016). Extraversion was positively associated
with selfie-posting attitudes, intentions, and behaviors (Arpaci
et al. 2018).
Agreeableness, was shown to be negatively associated with
fewer installed apps related to personalization (Xu et al. 2016).
Chittaranjan et al. (2013) identified a negative relationship
between Agreeableness and usage frequencies of apps related
to communication, gaming, productivity, and internet brows-
ing. Other studies did not find any association between
Agreeableness and self-reported app usage (Kim et al.
2015). It was also found that Agreeableness was negatively
associated with smartphone personalization (Butt and Phillips
2008).
Conscientiousness was negatively associated with commu-
nication app usage (Lane and Manner 2011). It was also a
negative predictor for the use of shopping and finance apps
(Kim et al. 2015). Conscientiousness was negatively correlat-
ed with the number of installed music, video, photography and
personalization apps (Xu et al. 2016). Chittaranjan et al.
(2013) showed that Conscientiousness was negatively related
to the use of entertainment apps.
Emotional Stability was negatively associated with com-
munication apps usage (Butt and Phillips 2008). Moreover,
Chittaranjan et al. (2013) showed that Emotional stability
was positively related to the frequency of communication
and gaming apps usage. Emotional stability was also positive-
ly related to the number of installed apps related to photogra-
phy and negatively related to the number of installed person-
alization apps (Xu et al. 2016). Elhai et al. (2017) found that
depression, anxiety and stress were related to problematic
smartphone use. Dysfunctional emotion regulation
(Rozgonjuk and Elhai 2019) and anger and worry were related
to problematic smartphone use (Elhai et al. 2019). Regarding
Openness to experience, it was found that it was positively
correlated with entertainment apps usage (Chittaranjan et al.
2013).
Curr Psychol
As presented above, it can be seen that individual differ-
ences related to the Big Five personality model can be drawn
from smartphone usage. Relying on the above presented re-
sults of previous research, we cannot conclude what would be
the expected relationships between personality traits and the
use of various app categories because research on personality
and smartphone use is young and there are some conflicting
results, mainly due to the various used methodologies (self-
reported app usage vs. tracked app usage) (Stachl et al. 2017).
Even if the Big Five model is considered the most ap-
propriate for reflecting one’s personality structure due to its
cross-cultural validity (Saucier et al. 2014), it has been
shown that there are individual differences related to per-
sonality which are not encompassed in the Big Five model.
Such individual differences are represented in models such
as the HEXACO model of personality (Ashton and Lee
2009) and the Dark Triad model (Paulhus and Williams
2002). The main distinction between the HEXACO model
and the Big Five is the presence of a sixth factor called
Honesty-Humility which refers to individual differences
in modesty, sincerity, and fairness (Ashton and Lee
2009). Only few studies investigated the relationship be-
tween the HEXACO personality model and smartphone
(Horwood and Anglim 2018). It was found that honesty-
humility, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness
were negatively associated with problematic smartphone
use, whereas emotionality was positively correlated with
problematic smartphone use. However, the mentioned
study measured smartphone use using a self-report
approach.
T h e D a r k Tr i a d e n c o m p a s s e s d i f f e r e n c e s i n
Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and Psychopathy.
Machiavellianism refers to the tendency to manipulate others
for personal benefits (Paulhus and Williams 2002). Narcissistic
individuals are characterized by a sense of superiority and arro-
gance (Paulhus and Williams 2002). Psychopathy is described in
terms of low-empathy, low remorse, impulsivity, and thrill-
seeking (Hare 1991). Despite the fact that the HEXACO model
and the Dark Triad share common variance with the Big Five
model (Lee & Ashton, 2014), they are able to predict important
behavioral outcomes over and above the Big Five model
(Burtăverde et al. 2016).
To date, no study investigated to what extent individual
differences related to Honesty-Humility, Machiavellianism,
Narcissism, and Psychopathy are related to smartphone usage.
Because individuals high on the Dark Triad traits and low on
Honesty-Humility tend to deceit others (Paulhus and Williams
2002), it is possible that their scores on self-reported person-
ality measures be, to a certain extent, biased. Therefore, it
would be useful to have an alternative method for the assess-
ment of these characteristics in order to avoid limitations such
as impression management, self-presentation, and social
desirability.
It has been shown that the Dark Triad Traits and Honesty-
Humility are related to short-term mating orientation (Jonason
et al. 2009; Lee et al. 2013). Moreover, narcissism correlated
with selfie-posting attitudes, intentions, and behaviors in men
(Arpaci 2018). Therefore, we expect that these traits will be
related to the usage of some smartphone app categories that
promote self-presentation and short-term mating orientation,
such as social media apps and dating apps. When it comes to
previous research that investigated the relationship between
personality and smartphone usage, the gold standard to mea-
sure smartphone app usage was to use a logging app designed
to measure app using frequency (Stachl et al. 2017). This
approach is considered superior to self-reported app usage
because it tracks app usage in a more objective manner
(Stachl et al. 2017). However, considering the practical impli-
cations, this approach has several limitations. For example, to
measure app usage such an application has to be installed
especially for this purpose. As a consequence, in practical
settings such as recruitment and selection, the assessment of
app usage with the aim of gathering unbiased information
about one’s personality would be almost impossible if a log-
ging app was not previously installed. However, modern
smartphones have built-in functions that measure app usage.
Such a function is the app usage function that is part of the
battery information menu. This function is designed to inform
the user about which apps used the smartphone’s battery since
the last charge. The available information is expressed in
minutes/h and percentages of used battery. This is a built-in
function for the two most popular smartphone operating sys-
tems: Android and iOS. Gower and Moreno (2018) called this
approach BUS (battery use screenshot). The authors tested the
validity of this method in measuring smartphone and app us-
age and showed that this approach leads to valid data. From
what we know, to date, no research relied on such an approach
to inspect the relationship between personality and
smartphone app usage. Using this approach to measure app
usage frequency has several advantages. Firstly, it is a built-in
function of almost every smartphone and can be used in prac-
tical psychological settings with the consent of the user.
Secondly, it is an objective measure, the app usage being
reported by the smartphone.. This way, the limitations of the
self-report method (e.g. 1 = use application, 0 = do not use
application) are avoided.
To sum up, we aim to investigate which personality
traits predict actual and observed behavior expressed
through several smartphone apps categories by relying
on a built-in function of the smartphone, namely the app
usage from the battery information menu, as well as to
investigate the relationship between personality traits
and the number of installed apps per category. To obtain
a complex picture of the personality structure, we mea-
sured the Big Five factors, HEXACO factors, and the
Dark Triad.

Method
Participants
All participants were undergraduate psychology students at a
university from Bucharest, Romania. The sample consisted of
Romanian citizens. During various lectures at the undergrad-
uate psychology level, the authors of this research informed
students that they were running a personality psychology re-
search project in order to recruit volunteers to participate. In
return, the students were informed that they would receive
extra credit for their involvement in the research. Taking into
account the aim of the study, only Android and iOS users were
able to participate. G*Power was used to determine the nec-
essary sample size in order to obtain meaningful effect sizes.
The minimum required sample size for a .30 effect size, with
the level of alpha at .95, and statistical power of .90 was 144
participants. 384 participants completed the measures.
Participants that did not track their smartphone use for the full
monitored period were excluded. After inspecting missing
data, 341 participants took part in this research (255 women,
86 men, Mage = 20.70, SD = 3.71, Age range = 18–47 years).
Participants were informed about the procedures regarding
data collection and gave their informed consent prior to par-
ticipation. Moreover, they were informed that all data will be
confidential.
Procedure
Firstly, during a personality psychology lecture, participants
completed the personality inventories and a demographic
questionnaire. During the same meeting, participants were
instructed to count their installed apps using the Applications
menu of their phone. They were told to count only the apps
they had installed and ignore the pre-installed apps. The au-
thors presented the taxonomy of app categories that was sub-
sequently used by participants to classify the apps and app
prototype for each category. The taxonomy was developed
relying on the app categorization available on Android and
App store (for iOS). The resulted categories were: Social me-
dia apps (e.g. Facebook, Whasapp), Entertainment apps (e.g.
Netflix, Streamcraft), Business apps (e.g.Fiverrm Google
Ads), News-info apps (e.g. SkyNews, Daily Mail Online),
Music apps (e.g. Spotify, Deezer), e-shopping apps (E.g.
Amazon, Alibaba), Online payments apps (e.g. Paypal,
Revolut), Cloud apps (e.g. Google Drive, Dropbox), e-health
apps (e.g. Fitbit, Myfitnesspal), Office/editing apps (e.g. MS
Office, OfficeSuite), Graphics apps (e.g. Adobe Photoshop,
PicsArt), Gaming apps (e.g. Subway Surfers, Pou),
Education apps (e.g. Neuronation, BBC Learning English),
Lifestyle apps (e.g. H&M, Massimo Dutti), Travel apps (e.g.
Tripadvisor, Trivago, Utility apps (Tools) (e.g. Reminder, QR
& Barcode scanner), Dating apps (e.g. Tinder, Jaumo). The
Curr Psychol
participants received examples of apps for each category. The
classification took part during the same lecture and was super-
vised by the authors of this study. Required time for app
counting and classification was around 25 min.
Secondly, the participants were told that they must track
their daily app usage using the battery menu of their
smartphone for a period of 7 days. Both Android and iOS
users were instructed how to do it. Participants were informed
that they had to create a document with their personal record
and report their daily app usage from their battery menu. They
were instructed to track their app usage every time before
charging their phone (in case a person charges their phone
twice a day, he/she must track app activity twice per day).
Participants were told they should report data in the same form
that is found on their phone (minutes/h) without doing any
transformation. The authors of the research asked for feedback
from the participants each day during the data collection peri-
od. After the 7 day period, the individual documents with all
records were received from all participants.
Measures
Big Five Model of Personality
Ten item personality inventory (TIPI) (Gosling et al. 2003)
was used to assess the Big Five Factors. This measure consists
of two items for each personality factor (Extraversion,
Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability and
Openness). Responses are recorded using a five-point Likert
scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree). Even if it is a
very brief measure of the Big Five, it has very good psycho-
metric properties (Gosling et al. 2003). The authors showed
that the measure has a good construct validity and criterion-
related validity (Gosling et al. 2003). Total scores were obtain-
ed by summing the items of each personality factor.
HEXACO Model of Personality
We used the 60 item version of the HEXACO Personality
inventory to assess the HEXACO model of personality. It
consists of 60 items, measuring six personality factors (10
items per factor) (Honesty-Humility, Emotionality,
Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and
Openness) (Ashton and Lee 2009) using a five-point Likert
scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree). Relying on
this sample, the internal consistency coefficients for each fac-
tor were as follows: Honesty-Humility = .75,
Emotionality = .74, Extraversion = .77, Agreeableness = .70,
Conscientiousness = .76, Openness = .72. The measure is
widely used in research, having a good construct and
criterion-related validity (Avram, Burtăverde, & Zanfirescu
2019). Total scores were obtained by summing the items of
each personality factor.
Curr Psychol
The Dark Triad
The Dark triad traits were measured using SD3 (Jones and
Paulhus 2014). This is a brief measure of the Dark Triad
(Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and Psychopathy) consisting
of 27 items, 9 items for each factor scored on a five-point
Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree). The
internal consistency coefficients obtained on this sample were:
Machiavellianism = .79, Narcissism = .78, Psychopathy = .75.
This is one of the most popular measures of the Dark Triad,
having a good construct and criterion-related validity
(Paulhus, Curtis, & Jones, 2018). Total scores were obtained
by summing the items of each personality factor.
Smartphone App Usage
Smartphone app usage was measured using the Battery usage
menu from the Settings menu of each smartphone. This is a
built-in function for Android and iOS-based smartphones.
Researchers showed that this approach leads to valid
smartphone data (Gower and Moreno 2018). This function is
designed to inform the user about which apps were actively
and inactively (running in the background) used since the last
charge and how much energy was used by each app. The
available information is expressed in minutes/h and percent-
ages of used battery. Considering the aim of the research,
participants were instructed to track only the information
expressed in minutes/h of usage and only the information
regarding the active usage of the apps.
Number of Installed Apps
As we described in the Procedure subsection, participants
counted and classified their installed apps.
Data Analysis
The distributions in all app usage categories deviated from a
Gaussian distribution. As a consequence, we used Spearman
correlations (Yarkoni 2010) to test the associations between
personality factors and the number of installed apps and daily
usage of app categories. Poisson regression was used to pre-
dict the daily usage of app categories via personality factors.
Poisson regression represents a type of regression analysis
which deals with count data. In this research, we relied on
the daily usage (converted in hours) of each of the following
app categories: Social media apps, Entertainment apps,
Business apps, News-info apps, Music apps, e-shopping apps,
Online payments apps, Cloud apps, e-health apps, Office/
editing apps, Graphics apps, Gaming apps, Education apps,
Lifestyle apps, Travel apps, Utility apps (Tools), Dating apps.
The distribution of count variables included in the analysis
followed a Poisson distribution. The significance of the
regression was tested relying on confidence estimation.
Usually, a predictor is significant if the confidence interval
does not contain value 1.00 (e.g. CI = .97–1.04, in this case
the predictor can be a negative and a positive predictor as
well). The authors can make the data available to other re-
searchers by request via e-mail.
Results
Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics for the number of
installed apps and daily applications usage. Table 2 shows
the Spearman correlations between personality factors and
the number of installed apps foreach category. Table 3 shows
the Spearman correlations between personality factors and
daily usage of each app category. Many significant relations
are visible, but due to the large number of relationships, we
only reported the regression results.
To test the predictive power of personality factors on daily
applications usage, we relied on the marginal effect of a var-
iable on the count variable as measured by the exponential of
its regression coefficient (Tables 4 and 5).
High levels of Big Five extraversion were associated with
an increase in using dating apps (+9%). One unit increase in
Big Five extraversion was associated with a 5% decrease in
using total installed apps. One unit increase in Big Five extra-
version was associated with a 6% decrease in using social
media apps. High Big Five extraversion was associated with
a decrease in using entertainment apps (−12%). One unit in-
crease in Big Five extraversion was associated with a 16%
decrease in using music apps. One unit increase in Big Five
extraversion was associated with a 10% decrease in using
gaming apps.
High Big Five agreeableness was associated with an in-
crease (+6%) in using business apps. One unit increase in
Big Five agreeableness was associated with a 12% decrease
in using news-info apps. One unit increase in Big Five
Agreeableness was associated with an 8% decrease in using
music apps.
High Big Five conscientiousness was associated with a 3%
decrease in usin total apps. High Big Five conscientiousness
was associated with an increase (+19%) in using business
apps. One unit increase in Big Five conscientiousness was
associated with a 20% increase in using news-info apps.
One unit increase in Big Five conscientiousness was associat-
ed with a 9% increase in using e-shopping apps. High Big
Five conscientiousness was associated with an increase in
using e-health apps (+11%). Higher levels of Big Five consci-
entiousness was associated with an increase in using graphics
apps (+6%). High levels of Big Five conscientiousness were
associated with an increase in using dating apps (7%). One
unit increase in Big Five conscientiousness was associated
with a 7% decrease in using gaming apps.
 Curr Psychol

Table 1 Descriptive statistics for

number of applications and Number of installed apps Daily usage of app category (hours)
applications usage
App category M SD M SD

Total apps 45.40 31.86 3.74 4.08

Social media apps 4.92 4.55 2.73 3.27
Entertainment apps 3.75 3.93 1.06 1.59
Business apps 1.89 2.93 .26 .98
News-info apps 1.49 1.73 .49 1.34
Music apps 2.34 1.66 1.53 2.34
E-shopping apps 1.45 2.00 .34 1.32
Online payment apps 0.79 1.32 .12 .82
Cloud apps 1.47 1.98 .14 .39
e-health apps 1.13 1.40 .17 1.34
Office/editing apps 2.52 2.24 .21 .43
Graphics apps 1.10 1.73 .13 .42
Gaming apps 2.36 3.53 .42 1.10
Education apps 1.30 2.14 .26 .69
Lifestyle apps 0.96 1.30 .14 .43
Travel apps 1.08 1.47 .10 .31
Utility apps (Tools) 5.95 8.88 .20 .88
Dating apps 0.48 5.54 .06 .34

High Big Five emotional stability was associated with the
decrease in using business apps (−13%). One unit increase in
Big Five emotional stability was associated with a 10% de-
crease in using news-info apps. High levels of Big Five emo-
tional stability were associated with a decrease in using
graphics apps (−11%). One unit increase in Big Five emotion-
al stability was associated with an 11% decrease in using
dating apps.
One unit increase in Big Five openness was associated with
an 11% increase in using music apps. Higher levels of Big
Five openness was associated with an increase in using
graphics apps (+6%). One unit increase in Big Five openness
was associated with a 6% increase in using gaming apps. One
unit increase in Big Five openness was associated with an 8%
increase in using travel apps. High levels of Big Five openness
were associated with an increase in using utility apps (+6%).
High Big Five openness was associated with the decrease in
using business apps (−14%).
One unit increase in HEXACO emotionality was associat-
ed with an increase (2%) in using total apps. One unit increase
in HEXACO Emotionality was associated with a 2% increase
in using entertainment apps. One unit increase in HEXACO
emotionality was associated with an increase in using utility
apps (+6%). One unit increase in HEXACO emotionality was
associated with a 6% increase in using social media apps. One
unit increase in HEXACO emotionality was associated with a
5% increase in using music apps.
One unit increase in HEXACO honesty-humility was as-
sociated with a 2% decrease in using total apps. High honesty-
humility was associated with a 2% decrease in using news-
info apps. One unit increase in HEXACO Honesty-Humility
was associated with a 3% decrease in using cloud apps. One
unit increase in HEXACO honesty-humility was associated
with a 3% decrease in using office/editing apps. One unit
increase in HEXACO honesty-humility was associated with
a 3% decrease in using gaming apps.
One unit increase in HEXACO extraversion was associated
with a 4% increase in using gaming apps. One unit increase in
HEXACO agreeableness was associated with a 3% increase in
using music apps. One unit increase in HEXACO agreeable-
ness was associated with a 4% increase in using cloud apps.
One unit increase in HEXACO conscientiousness was associ-
ated with a 4% increase in using office/editing apps. One unit
increase in HEXACO conscientiousness was associated with
a 3% decrease in using dating apps.
One unit increase in Machiavellianism was associated with
a 5% increase in using e-shopping apps. One unit increase in
narcissism was associated with a 6% decrease in using gaming
apps. One unit increase in psychopathy was associated with a
6% increase in using gaming apps.
Discussion
The aim of this research was to investigate which personality
traits predict actual and observed behavior expressed through
several smartphone apps categories by relying on a built-in
function of the smartphone namely the app usage from the
Curr Psychol

Table 2 Non-parametric correlations between personality factors and the number of applications installed

Number of apps E A C ES O H(x) E(x) X(x) A(x) C(x) O(x) M N P

Total apps −.04 .02 −.01 −.02 .01 .04 −.05 −.04 .02 −.02 .02 −.02 −.01 .05
Social media apps .05 .02 .01 −.07 −.05 −.06 .12 .03 −.02 .01 −.06 .02 .06 −.05
Entertainment apps .03 .01 −.01 03 −.01 −.07 −.07 .04 −.02 −.06 −.02 .01 −.01 .02
Business apps .04 −.06 .00 .06 −.02 .01 −.09 .07 −.02 −.01 .10 .01 .04 .07
News-info apps .04 .03 .09 .04 −.01 .03 .01 .13 .07 .03 .09 .01 .07 −.02
Music apps −.04 .07 .01 −.05 −.06 −.04 .04 −.01 −.06 0.04 −.02 .01 .03 .01
E-shopping apps .05 .02 .03 −.05 −.06 −.08 −.04 .07 −.01 .03 −.07 .06 .09 .01
Online payment apps −.05 −.05 −.01 −.01 −.05 .03 −.10 .02 −.01 −.03 −.02 .03 −.01 .06
Cloud apps −.02 −.03 .04 −.04 −.09 −.04 −.05 −.05 .02 .03 −.05 .02 .01 .04
e-health apps .02 .03 .07 .05 .03 .06 .05 .04 −.01 −.02 −.07 .01 .02 −.02
Office/editing apps −.10 .07 .04 .01 .02 .10 −.09 −.09 .08 .03 .05 .04 .05 .01
Graphics apps .02 .08 .04 −.02 .05 .01 .03 .02 .03 −.04 .17 .08 .07 −.02
Gaming apps −.02 −.12 −.06 −.04 −.08 −.07 −.04 .02 −.02 −.06 −.06 .10 .00 .06
Education apps −.04 .04 −.01 −.04 .03 .05 −.09 −.03 .02 .07 .12 −.03 .02 .02
Lifestyle apps −.06 −.03 .03 −.12 .02 −.03 .05 −.04 −.04 .01 −.01 .055 −.02 .02
Travel apps .03 −.02 −.02 −.03 −.03 −.01 −.02 −.09 .09 .03 −.05 −.01 .04 −.01
Utility apps −.05 −.02 −.05 −.04 .01 .05 .01 −.02 −.01 −.06 .07 −.06 −.06 −.04
Dating apps .11 −.12 −.13 −.05 .02 −.19 −.01 .05 −.13 −.09 −.07 .10 .13 .17

E = Big Five Extraversion; A = Big Five Agreeableness; C = Big Five Conscientiousness; ES = Big Five Emotional Stability; O = Big Five Openness;
H(x) = HEXACO Honesty-Humility; E(x) = HEXACO Emotionality; X(x) = HEXACO Extraversion; A(x) = HEXACO Agreeableness; C(x) =
HEXACO Conscientiousness; O(x) = HEXACO Openness; M = Machiavellianism; N = Narcissism; P = Psychopathy; Correlations in bold are statisti-
cally significant (p < .05)

battery information menu, as well as to investigate the rela-
tionship between personality traits and the number of installed
apps per category. The findings showed that variation in per-
sonality dispositions was associated with increased and de-
creased application usage. Personality dispositions from all
the three models considered (Big Five, HEXACO, Dark
Triad) were useful in predicting app usage.
Big Five extraversion was associated with a decrease in
using entertainment apps, music apps, gaming apps, social
apps, and smartphone apps in general (total installed apps)
and with an increase in using dating apps. These findings are
partially similar to other research that found a negative associ-
ation between extraversion and time spent on online environ-
ments (McElroy et al. 2007). At the same time, these findings
are partially different from those of other research that show a
positive relationship between extraversion and social and en-
tertainment app usage (Chittaranjan et al. 2013; Montag et al.,
2015; Stachl et al. 2017). It is already known that there are
mixed findings when it comes to the relationship between ex-
traversion and the use of social media and virtual environments
(Moore and McElroy 2012). In this regard, there are two di-
vergent explanations regarding the findings on the relationship
between extraversion and the use of online/virtual environ-
ments: (1) social compensation and (2) “the rich-get-richer”.
The social compensation explanation assumes that introverts
are more likely to use online and virtual environments because
this way they can interact with others and form relationships,
even if they lack social skills (compensation). The “rich-get-
richer” explanation argues that extraverts are more likely to use
online and virtual environments as this is one more way to
socialize and form relationships (Moore and McElroy 2012).
Therefore, the studies that support the first explanation, as the
present one, argue that extraverts prefer face-to-face personal
interaction to satisfy their interaction needs. This idea is sup-
ported by the positive relationship obtained between extraver-
sion and dating apps usage. This rationale is supported by
researchers that showed that the core of extraversion is repre-
sented by characteristics related to energy/surgency (John et al.
2008). Therefore, it is possible that individuals high on extra-
version, because they have high energy levels and behavioral
drive, tend to express these characteristics in dynamic and real-
life situations and interactions. Moreover, these contradictory
findings can be explained by contextual and cultural character-
istics. For example, in psycho-lexical studies, in some lan-
guages and cultural contexts, extraversion was labeled as dy-
namism because the factor was mostly described by terms
related to energy and activity and less by terms related to so-
ciability (Burtăverde and De Raad 2017). In those cultural
contexts, it is possible that the relationship between extraver-
sion and virtual/online environments usage to be a negative
one. Contrary, in those contexts where extraversion is mostly
described in terms of sociability, the relationship may be a
 Curr Psychol

Table 3 Non-parametric correlations between personality factors and usage of each app category

Number of apps E A C ES O H(x) E(x) X(x) A(x) C(x) O(x) M N P

Total apps −.07 −.01 −.02 −.06 .03 −.18 .08 −.10 −.12 .02 −.02 .08 .06 .06
Social media apps −.06 −.01 −.01 −.14 −.06 −.12 .30 −.13 −.13 .03 −.08 .04 −.02 .01
Entertainment apps −.09 −.05 .01 −.06 −.07 −.06 .09 −.06 −.09 .03 .02 .05 −.03 .05
Business apps .01 .00 .06 .04 −.06 −.03 −.08 .10 .03 .13 .07 .05 .03 .05
News-info apps −.02 −.01 .18 −.01 .04 .02 .08 .05 −.01 .09 .09 .01 .02 .01
Music apps −.12 .02 −.03 −.12 .02 −.10 .16 −.10 −.05 −.02 .01 .07 −.02 .05
E-shopping apps −.02 .07 .13 −.04 −.01 −.11 .13 .06 −.08 .09 −.03 .12 .17 .10
Online payment apps .02 .00 .04 −.02 −.09 −.04 −.04 .04 .04 .12 −.05 .08 .04 .04
Cloud apps .02 .04 .13 .05 .05 −.10 .00 .02 .02 .11 .00 .00 −.06 .00
e-health apps −.12 .08 .16 −.01 −.01 .06 .07 −.10 .03 .02 −.09 −.01 −.15 .01
Office/editing apps −.07 .05 .06 −.06 −.03 −.01 .20 −.09 .02 .15 −.05 −.03 −.02 −.01
Graphics apps .04 .06 .06 −.08 .11 −.06 .12 .01 −.01 .01 .13 .14 .04 .07
Gaming apps −.05 −.11 −.01 .01 .03 −.15 .03 .01 −.08 −.05 −.02 .10 −.02 .10
Education apps −.06 .08 .06 −.10 −.02 −.03 .12 −.05 .04 .10 .14 −.05 .03 −.03
Lifestyle apps −.08 −.01 .13 −.06 −.04 −.05 .04 .01 −.07 .08 −.02 .08 .03 .04
Travel apps −.03 −.01 .05 .01 −.05 −.05 .01 .04 .02 .12 .04 .05 .05 −.03
Utility apps −.07 −.01 .08 −.04 −.03 −.04 .12 −.01 −.01 .16 .07 .10 .01 .04
Dating apps .10 −.06 −.09 −.12 .02 −.14 .03 .05 −.07 −.07 .01 .10 .09 .19

*Correlations in bold are statistically significant (p < .05)

positive one. This explanation sustains the fact that the contra-
dictory findings regarding this relationship may not be the
result of methodological issues, but rather, may be dependent
on the cultural context on the conducted research.
Big Five agreeableness was associated with an increase in
using business apps and with the decrease in using news-info
apps, music apps, and dating apps. To our knowledge, no other
research identified similar associations regarding agreeable-
ness and smartphone usage. However, despite being innova-
tive, it is hard to meaningfully interpret the findings regarding
the positive association between agreeableness and the use of
business apps. A possible explanation may be that agreeable-
ness is positively related to transformational leadership com-
ponents such as individualized consideration (Bass 1999),
which may predispose individuals high on agreeableness to
interests in business activities. However, this speculation
should be investigated thoroughly in further research.
Regarding the negative associations between agreeableness
and the use of news-info and music apps, other studies found
that agreeable individuals spend less time at home and more
time in public places (Mehl et al. 2006). These negative asso-
ciations can be explained by the fact that reading news and
listening to music on a smartphone are usually solitary activi-
ties. The negative relationship between agreeableness and the
use of dating apps may be explained by other studies findings
that showed a negative association between agreeableness and
short-term mating orientation (Schmitt and Shackelford 2008).
We may assume that dating apps are a useful tool for short-
term mating. Therefore, individuals low on agreeableness use
more dating apps to manifest their short-term mating
orientation.
Big Five conscientiousness was associated with an increase
in using business apps, news-info apps, e-shopping apps, e-
health, dating apps, and graphics apps and with a decrease in
using gaming apps. The association between conscientious-
ness and business app usage is consistent with other research
findings (Chittaranjan et al. 2013). To date, from what we
know, no other research found an association between consci-
entiousness and news-info, e-shopping and e-health apps. It is
well-known that people high on conscientiousness are preoc-
cupied with their career and more oriented towards work
(Barrick and Mount 1991). This could serve as an explanation
for the association between conscientiousness and business
app usage. Moreover, this could also explain the association
between conscientiousness and the increase in news-info apps
usage. Due to diligence and their orientation towards work,
they tend to stay informed, as this helps them in their tasks and
activities. The positive relationship between conscientious-
ness and e-health apps usage could be explained by the fact
that people high on conscientiousness usually report good
physical health (Roberts et al. 2005). In this regard, conscien-
tiousness individuals may engage in behaviors that are desir-
able, such as exercising for which they use e-health apps to
help them in this regard.
The association between conscientiousness and the de-
crease in gaming apps usage was found in other studies as
well (Stachl et al. 2017). A possible explanation of this finding
may be that people high on conscientiousness are more self-
Curr Psychol

Expβ (95% CI)

1.03 (1.01, 1.05)

1.02 (1.00, 1.04)
1.04 (1.02, 1.06)

1.02 (1.00, 1.04)

1.02 (1.00, 1.04)
1.01 (.95, 1.08)
1.04 (.98, 1.10)

1.00 (.98, 1.02)

1.01 (.99, 1.04)

1.02 (.96, 1.08)
1.04 (.98, 1.11)
organized (Ashton and Lee 2009) and tend to procrastinate

.98 (.96, 1.01)

.95 (.90, 1.01)

.97 (.96, .99)

Cloud apps less. Therefore, they usually spend less time on activities such
as virtual games. The positive relationship between conscien-
tiousness and dating app usage is not sustained by other re-
search findings that tested the associations between personal-
Online payment apps

ity traits and short-term mating (Schmitt and Shackelford

2008). These studies found a negative relationship between
Expβ (95% CI)

1.11 (1.04, 1.19)

1.01 (.94, 1.07)

1.02 (.96, 1.09)

1.00 (.98, 1.92)

1.00 (.99, 1.02)

1.00 (.98, 1.02)
1.01 (.99, 1.03)

1.01 (.99, 1.03)

.95 (.95, 1.01)

.99 (.97, 1.02)
.98 (.91, 1.04)

.99 (.97, 1.02)

.97 (.95, 1.00)
conscientiousness and short-term mating. However, dating
.92 (.87, .98)

apps may be used to pursue long-term mating orientations as

well. In this regard, people high on conscientiousness, because
they are diligent and organized, when pursuing a long-term
relationship, may try anything that helps them, such as dating
E-shopping apps

1.09 (1.05 (1.14)

Expβ (95% CI)

1.05 (1.04, 1.07)

1.02 (1.01, 1.04)

1.01 (1.00, 1.03)

.1.01 (.99, 1.03)

1.02 (.98, 1.07)
1.01 (.96, 1.07)

1.00 (.99, 1.02)

1.00 (.99, 1.02)

.98 (.97, 1.00)

.99 (.98, 1.01)

.98 (.93, 1.02)

apps.
.97 (.95, .99)
.95 (.90, .99)

The positive association between conscientiousness and

graphics app usage could be explained if graphics apps are
used in professional tasks and duties. However, if they are
used for entertainment purposes, the relationship does not
1.03 (1.02 (1.04)
Expβ (95% CI)

1.01 (1.00, 1.01)

1.02 (1.01, 1.03)
1.05 (1.04, 1.06)

1.03 (1.03, 1.04)

1.00 (1.00, 1.01)

1.11 (1.08, 1.13)

make much conceptual sense. Therefore, for a better under-

.98 (.96, 1.01)
.84 (.82, .86)
.92 (.90, .95)
.97 (.95, .99)

.98 (.98, .99)

.98 (.97, .98)

.98 (.98, .99)
Music apps

standing of this association needs, further investigation is

needed.
Big Five emotional stability was associated with the de-
crease in using business app, news-info apps, graphics apps
Expβ (95% CI)
News-info apps

1.20 (1.15, 1.24)

1.01 (1.00, 1.02)

1.01 (1.00, 1.02)
1.01 (1.00, 1.02)

1.01 (1.00, 1.03)

1.00 (.97, .1.04)

1.00 (.96, 1.04)

and dating apps. The negative association between emotional

.99 (.98, 1.01)
.99 (.98, 1.00)
.88 (.84, .91)

.98 (.97, .99)

.97 (.96, .98)

.97 (.96, .98)

.90 (.88, .94)

stability and business and news-info app usage may be under-

stood in terms of the defense mechanism of intellectualization
(Plutchik et al. 1979). This mechanism assumes an implicit
control of emotions and impulses by excessive dependence
Expβ (95% CI)

1.19 (1.13, 1.24)

1.06 (1.00, 1.12)

1.02 (1.00, 1.03)

1.02 (1.00, 1.03)

1.01 (1.00, 1.03)

1.04 (1.02, 1.06)

1.00 (.95, 1.05)

1.00 (.98, 1.02)

Business apps

of rational information (Plutchik et al. 1979). People low on

.98 (.96, 1.00)
.99 (.97, 1.00)
.99 (.98, 1.00)
.86 (.81, .90)
.87 (.83, .91)

.97 (.95, .98)

emotional stability may rely more frequently on this mecha-

nism by using news-info and business apps. This explanation
is partially sustained by other studies that investigated emo-
tional stability and smartphone use. Authors showed that non-
Entertainment apps

social smartphone use is associated with traits that relate to

(95% CI) = Lower and upper confidence interval at 95% level of significance
Expβ (95% CI)

1.02 (1.01, 1.03)

1.03 (1.00, 1.06)

1.03 (1.02, 1.04)

1.02 (1.01, 1.03)
1.01 (1.00, 1.02)

1.02 (1.00, 1.03)

1.01 (.98, .1.04)
1.00 (.97, 1.02)

1.00 (.99, 1.01)

1.00 (.99, 1.01)

dysfunctional emotion regulation (Elhai et al. 2018a;

.99 (.98, 1.00)

.99 (.98, 1.00)

.88 (.86, .90)
.95 (.93, .98)

Rozgonjuk and Elhai 2019), procrastination (Rozgonjuk

Poisson regression models for smartphone application use

et al. 2018a), distress tolerance (Elhai et al. 2018b), and intol-

erance of uncertainty (Rozgonjuk et al. 2019). The negative
relationship between emotional stability and the usage of dat-
Social media apps

ing apps is congruent with other research findings that identi-

Expβ (95% CI)

1.01 (1.00, 1.03)

1.06 (1.05, 1.06)

1.00 (1.00, 1.01)
1.01 (1.00, 1.02)

1.03 (1.02, 1.03)

1.01 (.99, 1.03)

1.00 (.99, 1.00)

.99 (.97, .1.00)

.99 (.98, 1.00)

.99 (.98, 1.01)

.99 (.99, 1.00)

.99 (.99, 1.00)

.99 (.99, 1.00)

fied a negative association between emotional stability and

.94 (.93, .96)

short-term mating (Schmitt and Shackelford 2008). The nega-

tive relationship between emotional stability and graphic apps
usage does not seem to have a rational and conceptual expla-
nation, therefore, it needs further investigations. A possible
Expβ (95% CI)

1.04 (1.02, 1.05)

1.01 (1.00, 1.01)

1.03 (1.01, 1.04)

1.02 (1.01, 1.02)

1.01 (1.00, 1.01)

1.00 (1.00, 1.01)

1.00 (1.00, 1.01)

1.03 (1.02, 1.03)

1.00 (.98, 1.01)

explanation may be that neurotic individuals seek emotional-

.97 (.95, .98)

.98 (.97, .98)

.98 (.98, .99)

.99 (.98, .99)

.95 (.94, .96
Total apps

related stimuli, as those that characterize various graphic con-

tent, to help them with their emotion-regulation.
Big Five openness was associated with the increase in
using music apps, graphics apps, gaming apps, lifestyle apps,
Machiavellianism

travel apps, utility apps, and with the decrease in using busi-
Psychopathy
Narcissism
Predictors

ness apps. These findings are partially supported by other

Table 4

research findings in which openness was positively related

H(x)

X(x)
A(x)

O(x)
C(x)
E(x)
ES

to entertainment app usage (Chittaranjan et al. 2013). A

A

O
C
E
 Curr Psychol

1.07 (1.01 (1.13)

Expβ (95% CI)

1.02 (1.00, 1.04)

1.09 (1.03, 1.16)

1.00 (.99, 1.02)

1.01 (.99, 1.04)

1.01 (.99, 1.03)

1.00 (.98, 1.02)

1.02 (.99, 1.05)
possible explanation of these findings may be that individuals

.99 (.97, 1.01)

.99 (.97, 1.02)

.99 (.93, 1.06)
.95 (.89, 1.02)

.97 (.96, .99)

.89 (.85, .95)
Dating apps high on openness to experience are characterized by an inter-
est in the beauty of art and nature, are inquisitive about various
domains of knowledge, use their imagination in everyday life
and are interested in unusual ideas or people (Ashton and Lee
Expβ (95% CI)

1.01 (1.00, 1.03)

1.06 (1.00, 1.13)

1.06 (1.04, 1.08)

2009). This may also explain the negative association between

1.01 (.99, 1.02)

1.00 (.99, 1.02)

1.01 (.99, 1.03)

1.02 (.99, 1.04)

1.01 (.99, 1.04)
1.03 (.97, 1.10)

.98 (.96, 1.00)

.96 (.91, 1.02)

.99 (.98, 1.01)

.97 (.91, 1.02)
.98 (.92, 1.05)
Utility apps

openness and business apps usage. In general, business in-

volves, to a certain degree, strategic thinking, planning, com-
pliance with formality and procedures, characteristics that are
antagonistic to people high on openness.
HEXACO emotionality was associated with the increase in
1.08 (1.01 (1.15)
Expβ (95% CI)

1.03 (1.01, 1.05)

1.02 (1.00, 1.04)

1.02 (1.00, 1.04)
1.00 (.99, 1.02)

1.01 (.99, 1.03)

1.00 (.98, 1.02)

1.02 (.99, 1.04)

1.03 (.97, 1.09)
1.00 (.94, 1.07)

1.00 (.94, 1.07)

.99 (.93, 1.05)

.98 (.97, 1.00)

.99 (.97, 1.02)

social apps usage, music apps usage, and utility apps usage.
Travel apps

People high on emotionality feel empathy and sentimental

attachment to others. Moreover, they experience anxiety in
response to life stressors (Ashton and Lee 2009). These char-
acteristics may explain the positive association between emo-
Expβ (95% CI)

1.00 (.99, 1.02)

1.01 (.98, 1.01)

1.01 (.99, 1.02)

1.00 (.98, 1.01)

1.00 (.99, 1.02)

1.00 (.98, 1.03)

1.01 (.98, 1.03)
1.04 (.99, 1.10)

1.05 (.99, 1.11)

Lifestyle apps

tionality and social media apps usage. People high on emo-

.99 (.97, 1.01)
.98 (.96, 1.01)
.99 (.93, 1.05)

.96 (.91, 1.01)

.91 (.86, .96)

tionality feel the need to socialize and to be emotionally con-

nected with others, but they may prefer virtual environments
because they may perceive these environments as less ex-
posed to physical risks. The positive association between
Expβ (95% CI)

1.04 (1.02, 1.05)

Education apps

emotionality and music apps usage may be explained by the

1.01 (.99, 1.02)
1.01 (.99, 1.02)

1.00 (.98, 1.02)

1.04 (.99, 1.09)
.98 (.93, 1.02)

.99 (.98, 1.01)

.99 (.98, 1.01)

.97 (.93, 1.02)
.99 (.97, 1.00)
.99 (.98, 1.01)

.99 (.97, 1.01)

.95 (.91, 1.00)
.93 (.89, .98)

interest of individuals high on emotionality in sentimental-

related activities (Ashton and Lee 2009), such as music.
Individuals high on emotionality are anxious individuals and
also have low emotional intelligence (Veselka et al. 2009).
Therefore, individuals with high scores on emotionality may
Expβ (95% CI)

1.05 (1.04, 1.06)

1.02 (1.00, 1.03)

1.04 (1.03, 1.06)

1.06 (1.04, 1.07)

1.04 (1.00, 1.09)
1.06 (1.02, 1.11)

1.00, (.99, 1.02)

1.00 (.99, 1.02)
1.03 (.99, 1.08)

.99 (.97, 1.00)

Gaming apps

use intellectualization as a defense mechanism that supposes

.90 (.86, .94)

.97 (.96, .98)

.93 (.89, .97)

.94 (.93, .96)

an implicit control of emotions and impulses by an excessive

dependence on rational information (Plutchik et al. 1979),
such as those implied by utility apps.
Machiavellianism was associated with the increase in using
Poisson regression models for smartphone application use (continued)

Expβ (95% CI)

1.02 (1.00, 1.03)

1.06 (1.00, 1.13)
1.06 (1.01, 1.12)

1.03 (1.01, 1.05)

1.03 (1.01, 1.05)

1.02 (1.01, 1.04
1.02 (.96, 1.08)
1.01 (.94, 1.08)

1.01 (.99, 1.03)

1.00 (.98, 1.03)

Graphics apps

e-shopping apps. Individuals high on Machiavellianism are

.98 (.96, 1.00)

.99 (.97, 1.01)

.99 (.97, 1.01)

.89 (.84, .94)

oriented towards status striving and social power (Jones and

Paulhus 2014). Therefore, they may tend to take advantage of
anything that may help them in this process. Online shopping
activities are time-saving, and, therefore, in terms of a cost-
Office/editing apps

benefit relation, Machiavellians may prefer them because they

1.02 (1.01 (1.04)
Expβ (95% CI)

1.03 (1.01, 1.05)

1.04 (1.02, 1.05)

1.00 (.99, 1.02)

1.01 (.99, 1.02)

1.02 (.97, 1.08)

1.01 (.99, 1.03)

may prove useful in pursuing some of their goals.

1.01 (.99,1.03)
.97 (.92, 1.02)

.97 (.92, 1.02)

.98 (.93, 1.03)

.96 (.91, 1.01)

.98 (.97, 1.00)

.97 (.96, .99)

Narcissism was associated with the increase in using gam-

ing apps. Narcissism is perceived in terms of individual dif-
ferences in dominance, self-entitlement, grandiosity, and su-
periority (Jones and Paulhus 2014). Many of the games avail-
Expβ (95% CI)

1.11 (1.04, 1.18)

able on smartphones simulate various competitive activities

1.01 (.94, 1.08)

1.01 (.99, 1.02)

1.00 (.94, 1.07)

1.00 (.98, 1.02)

1.02 (.99, 1.04)
1.01 (.99, 1.03)
1.01 (.99, 1.04)

1.01 (.98, 1.04)

1.00 (.98, 1.03)
.97 (.91, 1.03)

.97 (.91, 1.03)

.98 (.97, 1.00)

.98 (.96, 1.00)

e-health apps

and offer the user the posibility to identify with various pow-
erful and heroic characters. Therefore, individuals high on
narcissism may be able to satisfy their dominant orientation
and manifest their need for superiority.
Psychopathy was associated with the increase in using
Machiavellianism

gaming apps. Psychopathy is characterized by impulsive and

Psychopathy
Narcissism
Predictors

thrill-seeking behaviors, willingness to risk, low empathy and

Table 5

anxiety (Jones and Paulhus 2014). Smartphone games contain

H(x)

X(x)
A(x)

O(x)
C(x)
E(x)
ES

scenarios that involve the simulation of extreme and intense

A

O
C
E
Curr Psychol
activities, and, this way, individuals high on psychopathy can
manifest their impulsive and thrill-seeking dispositions.
The findings of this research can be useful in designing
psychological assessment programs with the aim of avoiding
limitations such as social desirability and impression manage-
ment (Paulhus and Vazire 2007). For example, by assessing
personality using objective behavior samples, such as those
reflected through smartphone app usage, practitioners may
obtain relevant and unbiased information about one’s person-
ality. Conscientiousness is widely used as a predictor for var-
ious work-related outcomes (Barrick and Mount 1991). The
findings of this study showed that conscientiousness was pos-
itively associated with using business apps, news-info apps, e-
shopping apps, e-health. Drawing on this, with the consent of
the candidates, practitioners can design assessment programs
that take into consideration the smartphone activity of various
candidates regarding the categories of applications that are
available on the smartphone menu (battery information).
However, as there is little evidence on this topic, and, more
than that, there are mixed findings, this type of assessment
should be used in combination with more traditional forms
of assessment, such as self-reports.
This study has some important limitation that should be
mentioned. First of all, the sample of participants consisted
mostly of women which may lead to construct-irrelevant var-
iance (Haladyna and Downing 2004). Further research, should
consider more balanced samples in studying the relationship
between personality and smartphone usage. Secondly, the
findings of this research are sample-dependent as we relied
on only one category of population, namely undergraduate
students. Therefore, the findings of this research should be
treated with caution in terms of generalization. Thirdly, taking
into account the aim of the study, we relied only on
smartphones that are powered by iOS and Android software,
as these platforms have a built-in function that offers enough
information about app usage. Another limitation is that app
usage was measured by each participant relying on the
smartphone battery menu and was treated as an indicator of
actual behavior. Though the information is registered by the
smartphone function, it is recorded by the participant. This
may be interpreted as self-reported behavior by some re-
searchers. The way this approach of measuring smartphone
usage affects the measurement validity should be explored by
further research.
Drawing on the findings of this research, further studies
may bring new important evidence on the topic of personality
and smartphone usage. For example, it is important to know if
app usage has predictive power in the case of various social,
organizational or educational criteria, by comparing this ap-
proach with already existing assessment techniques. Such a
study may or may not support the utility of such an assessment
alternative. Moreover, in this regard, research may test the
incremental validity of various measures of smartphone usage
(self-reported usage, logged behavior, usage tracked by built-
in functions) in predicting certain criteria.
In conclusion, this study showed that actual behavior
expressed in various app categories is associated with broad
and important personality dimensions. Moreover, this study
took into consideration personality traits central to personality
structure that have not been considered in relationship with
smartphone usage, such as HEXACO Honesty-Humility and
Emotionality and the components of the Dark Triad
(Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy), and
showed that some of them (Emotionality and the Dark Triad
components) are associated with app usage. Regarding the
main findings, it can be seen that Big Five extraversion posi-
tively predicted dating apps usage and negatively predicted
entertainment apps usage. Big Five conscientiousness posi-
tively predicted business apps usage, news-info apps usage,
and e-health apps usage. Big Five emotional stability nega-
tively predicted business apps usage. Big Five openness pos-
itively predicted travel apps usage. HEXACO emotionality
positively predicted utility apps usage. Dark Triad psychopa-
thy positively predicted gaming apps usage. The findings of
this research can be useful in integrating actual behavior in
psychological research.
Compliance with Ethical Standards
Conflict of Interest The authors have no conflicts of interest.
Ethical Approval The research was approved by the ethical committee
of University of Bucharest.
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