Measuring Personality Using Emojis: Creating a Traits Assessment Tool on Emoji Material

• Published in: Национальный психологический журнал
• Main Author: Nikita R. Ilichov
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lomonosov Moscow State University 2025-12-01
• Subjects: emoji; taxonomy; personality traits; big five; dark triad; dark tetrad; psychometric analysis
• Online Access: https://npsyj.ru/en/articles/article/11847/
• ISSN: 2079-6617; 2309-9828

Background. Emoji appeared as a way to compensate the lack of non-verbal cues in computer-mediated communication. Today, they have become the most popular cultural tool of expressing meanings on the Internet. It is widely used by 95% of users, which makes them related to natural languages. In this paper, we considering one of the possible ways to use emojis as the basis for personality taxonomies in the framework of the lexical models such as Big Five and HEXACO. Objective. The aim of this study is to select and factorize emojis in search of personality indicators which can be operationalised into a modern methodology for measuring traits. Study Participants. The study involved 761 respondents aged from 18 to 53 years. Methods. Each respondent rated their personality using 156 emojis with a specially adapted instruction from the Brief Big Five Inventory (BFI-2), and then completed instruments assessing basic personality traits and emotional state: the Big Five, the Dark Tetrad, and the Positive and Negative Affect Scales (PANAS). Results. Exploratory factor analysis revealed an eight-factor structure of emojis that reflect a range of personality traits. The eight most loaded emoji on each factor were chosen for creating traits scales. Emoji scales showed great internal consistency ranging from 0.79 to 0.93 and were statistically significantly related with different Big Five, Dark Triad traits and PANAS affect measures. Conclusion. The final eight-factor emoji model requires further replication to confirm its structure. Nevertheless, the emoji traits assessment tool based on this model showed good validity and reliability, therefore it may be recommended for use in a pilot format as one of the ways to measure personality traits.