Abstract or Summary:
This study sought to support the hypothesis that college students' choice of passwords is related to their self-assessed personality traits, suggesting that computer password selection could be a 21st-century personality assessment tool. Sixty-eight undergraduate college students (51 females and 17 males) from a moderate-size, mid-western university were asked to complete a questionnaire regarding the types of passwords they most often use (personal, celebrity, fantasy, emotion, encrypted, or other) and to participate in an on-line personality test that used the “Big Five” dimensions of personality (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience). Regardless of age or gender, the personal password users scored higher on the agreeableness and conscientiousness dimension than all other types of password users.