Personality in your hands: How extraversion traits influence preference for pointing in Chinese people

ABSTRACT The cognitive science literature reports significant cultural variation in pointing gesture repertoires. It is unknown, however, if individual differences in personality traits can influence pointing preferences within a single culture. Here, we sought to examine how extraversion is associated with people’s manual and non-manual pointing preferences. In a referential communication task, speakers were required to describe locations and objects on a complex display for addressees. The results showed that participants with high extraversion used more manual pointing than those with low extraversion. However, the two groups showed no difference in the mean number of non-manual pointing. It may be that compared with less extraverted speakers, highly extraverted speakers have more energy that can be devoted into interpersonal communication. These findings provide the first step to understanding that personality traits can act as an important moderator in pointing preferences and, more broadly, about the nature and emergence of human communication.