Extraversion and Gifts: What Research Shows and How We Use It
Extraversion describes how much a person seeks company, activity and stimulation versus quiet and time alone. Shopping and advertising studies link it to sociable shopping motives and to responses to messages matched to it.[1][2] We did not find a study showing which gifts extraverts or introverts prefer, so iGiftFinder uses it for one practical question: would they enjoy this with other people, or by themselves?
What extraversion means
It is one of the five broad Big Five personality traits. A widely used inventory splits it into three facets: sociability, assertiveness and energy level.[3] People higher in extraversion tend to be outgoing, talkative and energetic. People lower in extraversion (introverts) tend to be quieter and more reserved, and often recharge alone.
Neither end is better, and introversion is not shyness. Our gifts for introverts and gifts for extroverts guides go into ideas for both.
What the research says
- Sociable shopping. In a survey of 216 people, extraversion was associated with a social motive for shopping online. We read only the abstract.[1]
- Variety and impulse. In a nationally representative sample of 1,644 Norwegian adults, higher extraversion was associated with somewhat more variety seeking and impulse buying.[4]
- Matched ads. In Facebook field experiments, extraversion-matched cosmetics ads raised purchases (not clicks) in one study, and an ad tailored to introverts drew more clicks and installs than a standard ad in another.[2]
- Matched spending. Over 76,000 bank-transaction records showed people spend more on products that match their personality. In a follow-up with 79 students, personality-matched spending (a book or a bar voucher, for introverts and extraverts) raised positive affect. The authors caution against using the first, correlational study to advise people how to spend.[5]
Where the evidence is thin
- These are people's own purchases and reactions to ads, not gifts received.
- The cosmetics experiment tested women, so it says nothing about how men would respond. Clicks did not differ between the matched and unmatched ads.[2]
- Personality was inferred from online behavior in the ad studies, not measured by a gift-giver's judgment of a friend.
- Averages do not describe individuals. Plenty of introverts love a party gift and plenty of extraverts love a quiet evening.
How it can inform a gift
Our reasoning, not tested findings:
- For someone who is energized by company, gifts that can be shared, such as a game for a group, tickets, or something to host with, are a natural fit.
- For someone who recharges alone, gifts they can enjoy privately (a book, a hobby kit, a comfortable thing for home) avoid putting them on show.
- Check the relationship. A gift that asks someone to perform or socialize can feel like pressure if you know them less well.
How iGiftFinder's quiz uses it
The quiz asks two short questions about the person's social side, each answerable on a five-point scale or with "Not sure." They are combined into one of four rough levels that shapes the description of the person and the style of ideas, alongside their interests and your budget. If you answer "Not sure" to both, the quiz falls back to a mild default description for this trait, which you can disregard.
This is not a validated personality test. The questions are our own wording about someone else, not a standard inventory, and no result guarantees a perfect gift. See how the quiz works.
Related
Also in the quiz: Openness and Conscientiousness. Left out on purpose: Agreeableness and Neuroticism. See gift ideas based on personality, the overview How Personality Shapes the Gifts People Love, or take the quiz.
Sources
- Huang, J. H. & Yang, Y. C. (2010). The relationship between personality traits and online shopping motivations. Social Behavior and Personality, 38(5), 673-679. Abstract only (full text not read): https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2010.38.5.673
- Matz, S. C., Kosinski, M., Nave, G. & Stillwell, D. J. (2017). Psychological targeting as an effective approach to digital mass persuasion. PNAS, 114(48). Full text read: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5715760/
- Soto, C. J. & John, O. P. Big Five Inventory-2 Short Form (BFI-2-S), form and scoring key with the 15 facet scales (Berkeley John Lab). Read in full; used only for the names of the domains and facets, not for any research finding: https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~johnlab/docs.php?file=bfis.pdf
- Olsen, S. O., Tudoran, A. A., Honkanen, P. & Verplanken, B. (2016). Differences and similarities between impulse buying and variety seeking: A personality-based perspective. Psychology & Marketing, 33(1), 36-47. Full text read (accepted manuscript): https://purehost.bath.ac.uk/ws/files/147240500/Olsen_Tudoran_Honkanen_Verplanken_2015_.pdf; publisher DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.20853
- Matz, S. C., Gladstone, J. J. & Stillwell, D. (2016). Money buys happiness when spending fits our personality. Psychological Science, 27(5), 715-725. Full text read (author accepted manuscript): https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1519780/; publisher DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797616635200
Evidence note: sources marked "full text read" were read in full by our research team; sources marked "abstract only" were not, so claims from them rest on the abstract alone. Almost all of this research concerns what people buy for themselves or how they react to advertising. We did not locate a study that tests a Big Five trait against how recipients rate gifts they receive. That is a gap in what we found, not proof that no such study exists.
Some links on this page are affiliate links; we may earn a commission. See our Disclosure.