Re:Psychologist finds Wikipedians grumpy and closed-minded
by mechanical_fish on Sunday June 28, 2009 @09:09PM
(#678309)
I agree. Where, for example, is the data on writers in general?
Writing, of any sort, is not a social activity. You sit alone and type. Or you sit alone and read things that you or others have typed. Or you sit and fret about the things that you're not typing.
It's hard for me to take this study seriously when I can close my eyes and imagine James Thurber's results. Or Harlan Ellison's. Or Hunter S. Thompson's.
Yes, posting anything online is an activity that draws more introverts than extroverts. Hence: more people who are less practiced in their social skills, perhaps partly because they enjoy less practicing/developing social skills.
Similar findings (not necessarily the "grumpiness" factor") might be discovered comparing fiction writers and night club entertainers.
As for the scoring lower on "openness" - I'd have to see how that was operationalized. Were they "less open" to unsubstantiatable claims of UFO sightings, etc., and insisting on documentation?
One man's closed-mindedness is another's insistence on scientific method.
--recovering research psychologist