Identifying Personality Types Using Document Classification Methods

Are the words that people use indicative of their personality type preferences? In this paper, it is hypothesized that word-usage is not independent of personality type, as measured by the MyersBriggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality assessment tool. In-class writing samples were taken from 40 graduate students along with the MBTI. The experiment utilizes probabilistic and nonprobabilistic classifiers to show whether an individual’s personality type is identifiable based on their word-choice. Classification is also attempted using emotional, social, cognitive, and psychological dimensions extracted using a third-party text analysis tool called Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC). These classifiers are evaluated using leave-one-out crossvalidation. Experiments suggest that the two middle letters of the MBTI personality type dichotomies, Sensing-Intuition and Thinking-Feeling, are related to word choice while the other dichotomies, Extraversion-Introversion and Judging-Perceiving, are unclear.