University Student Reading Preferences in Relation to the Big Five Personality Dimensions

Abstract

In this study 251 Australian university students, with a mean age of 26.46, indicated their preference for different types of reading material. A subset of 136 participants additionally reported how many hours per week they typically engage in recreational reading and non-recreational reading, indicated their motivation for recreational reading, completed a Big Five personality inventory, and kept a week-long reading log in which they recorded daily their recreational reading of different types of materials. A principal components analysis showed that reading preferences grouped into eight content areas. A set correlation analysis showed that overall the Big Five personality dimensions predicted reading preferences. Openness and conscientiousness in particular were good predictors of four specific types of content preferences. Preference for a certain type of material tended to predict time spent reading that material as reported in the week-long reading log. Further, the Big Five personality dimensions together predicted total amount of recreational reading, amount of reading of favorite material, and amount of non-recreational reading.