--- title: Avatar: What Your Online Persona Says About Who You Really Are description: A new study shows that some aspects of individuals' personalities are easier to translate than others. canonical: https://time.com/3660487/online-personality/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-09T18:00:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:06:20.047Z article:section: Health og:title: What Your Online Persona Says About Who You Really Are og:description: A new study shows that some aspects of individuals' personalities are easier to translate than others. og:url: https://time.com/3660487/online-personality/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8328984545bac9f5/698778f70b72e3c8bf6dd08b/165814833-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=414&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 414 og:image:height: 233 og:image:alt: 165814833 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What Your Online Persona Says About Who You Really Are twitter:description: A new study shows that some aspects of individuals' personalities are easier to translate than others. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8328984545bac9f5/698778f70b72e3c8bf6dd08b/165814833-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=414&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What Your Online Persona Says About Who You Really Are > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=0c47611d-d946-4dfc-bec3-b213d6b39a1b&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jan 9, 2015 6:00 PM UTC  Girls Faces Collection\_II. Girls Faces Collection\_II. Getty Images by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jan 9, 2015 6:00 PM UTC Does who you are online match who you are in real life? A new study published in the journal _Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin_ shows that avatars, the little icons you can customize in video games and Internet forums, are pretty good depictions of the people who created them. Since more and more people meet and develop friendships and relationships online, researchers at York University in Toronto looked into whether the impressions people get from avatars, like the kind you use on Nintendo Wii and World of Warcraft, are true reflections of the real-life players they’re interacting with. To measure this, the researchers had about 1oo people create an avatar representation of themselves, and then asked nearly 200 others to rate the avatars on openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. The results show that traits like being outgoing or anxious are pretty easy to assess, but other traits like conscientiousness and openness to new experiences are more difficult. People with agreeable traits were better able to get their personalities across through their avatars than narcissists.  Example of avatars used in the study Katrina Fong Specific physical traits of the online characters helped translate personalities more than others. Smiles, brown hair, sweaters and open eyes were more likely to come across as friendly and inviting, compared to avatars with neutral expressions or those that didn’t smile. Avatars with black hair, a hat, short hair or sunglasses were less likely to come across as friendly or desiring friendship. Interestingly, the people in the study didn’t seem to apply usual gender stereotypes to the avatars, though avatars made by females were rated as more open and contentious over all. The researchers speculate that perhaps the digital realm has gender stereotypes that differ from the ones we more commonly experience offline. “The findings from this study suggest that we can use virtual proxies such as avatars to accurately infer personality information about others,” the study authors conclude. “The impressions we make on others online may have an important impact on our real life, such as who becomes intrigued by the possibility of our friendship.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3660487/online-personality/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3660487/online-personality/"},"headline":"What Your Online Persona Says About Who You Really Are","datePublished":"2015-01-09T18:00:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:06:20.047Z","description":"A new study shows that some aspects of individuals' personalities are easier to translate than others.","url":"https://time.com/3660487/online-personality/","keywords":["Research","personality","Friendship","online","Friends","Avatar"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8328984545bac9f5/698778f70b72e3c8bf6dd08b/165814833-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8328984545bac9f5/698778f70b72e3c8bf6dd08b/165814833-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"165814833","caption":"165814833","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3660487/online-personality/","name":"What Your Online Persona Says About Who You Really Are"}}]}] ```