You might think that everyone moves their computer mouse in the same way, but that is not the case. More importantly, the type of movement a person makes in this area reflects their personality. Researchers at the University of Chicago analyzed the mouse movements of 791 individuals who were asked to use the mouse for a specific image-related task on a computer, according to the British newspaper "Daily Mail."
The researchers concluded that there are slight differences among individuals in how they move the mouse, which reveals a facet of each person's personality. They used a program to measure how participants utilized the computer mouse, analyzing factors such as movement speed, clicks, and pauses.
Later, participants were asked to fill out a "Big Five" personality questionnaire, commonly used by psychologists to measure traits that indicate whether a person may be neurotic, open, agreeable, extraverted, or conscientious. When the researchers compared personality types with mouse test results, they found a correlation between the two.
The lead researcher in the study, Kimberly Maedebauer, stated, "Having fewer unnecessary clicks, slower mouse movement, and more pausing indicates that a person is more open, kind, and conscientious, and less neurotic."
