JUNE 2016
IS THE
F U T U R E OF
PERSONALITY
BIG TRENDS
PERSONALITY
ASSESSMENT
THE FUTURE IS
ALREADY HERE, IT’S
JUST NOT EVENLY
DISTRIBUTED.
– William Gibson
How we gather personality data,
how we analyze and validate it, and
how information gets shared is ripe
for disruption. But what might that
look like?
We asked the first 200 people
what they thought the future of
personality might look like.
NOVEL PRE-HIRE METHODS
COMPLETELY ACCEPTABLE
SOMEWHAT UNACCEPTABLE
SOMEWHAT ACCEPTABLE
COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE
1.0
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
O.3
0.2
0.1
0.0
ANALYZING NATURAL
LANGUAGE (TWEETS,
EMAIL, TEXT CHATS, ETC.)
ANALYZING FACIAL
MOVEMENTS AND
EMOTIONS
ANALYZING SPEECH AND
VOICE PATTERNS
OUR RESPONDENTS FOCUSED MOSTLY
ON HOW PERSONALITY DATA IS BEING
COLLECTED. CLEARLY THE BIG SHIFTS
ARE EXPECTED TO BE IN:
1
2
SHORTER, MORE ENGAGING QUESTIONNAIRES THAT
RETAIN THEIR VALIDITY.
PRODUCING PERSONALITY PROFILES BY COMBINING
ALL THE DIGITAL INFORMATION THAT EXISTS ON
A PERSON (LIKE FACEBOOK LIKES, SOCIAL MEDIA
POSTS, LINKED IN PROFILES, RESUMES AND SO ON).
“COMPLETE SIMPLICITY FOR THE APPLICANT/CANDIDATE.
ABLE TO COMPLETE ON MOBILE DEVICES QUICKLY AND
EASILY. AN EXPERIENCE THAT FEELS FUN/LIKE A GAME”
A smaller number of people expected unusual
sources of information to start becoming mainstream
with the next five years:
3
NOVEL SIGNALS THAT MIGHT REVEAL PERSONALITY,
SUCH AS VOICE PROFILING, RETINAL SCANS, FACIAL
MOVEMENTS, POSTURE, DNA.
All of these technologies are in testing and
exploratory phase right now. It’s important not to
assume these new methods are reliable (produce
the same results through time), or valid (predict real
world outcomes reliably). For example, DNA markers
might be associated with being sociable, but two
people with the same marker don’t show the same
levels of sociability. That’s why Hogan is doing the
basic research.
“ANALYZING SOCIAL NETWORKING USE IS VERY INNOVATIVE.”
“SOCIAL MEDIA DATA ANALYTICS, VOICE MODULATION DATA
ANALYTICS (USING WEARABLE DEVICES).”
EXAMINING SOCIAL
CONNECTIONS AND
RELATIONSHIPS
ANALYZING FACEBOOK
LIKES
ANALYZING PHOTO
STREAMS AND MUSIC
PLAYLISTS
PLAYING GAMES
Now consider – are they acceptable? When we
asked our survey takers, we found most people find
it okay to capture personality from natural language
(think of emails), social connections (LinkedIn),
from facial and voice analysis, and from games.
On the other hand, shared social data (photo
streams, music playlists or Facebook data) is less
acceptable for data collection. It might be due to
people finding that level of collection more intimate,
or too revealing. But Facebook, Instagram, Apple
and many others sell advertisements targeted at
you, based on analyzing exactly these data.
PRIVACY AND DATA USE ARE GOING TO BE BIG ISSUES
IN THE FUTURE.
The final two themes revealed a strong wish for a
more human, context aware assessment process:
4
PERSONALITY PROFILES THAT BEGIN TO ADDRESS
THE WHOLE PERSON, INSIDE AND OUT OF WORK,
AND THAT TAKE ACCOUNT OF THE CONTEXT IN
WHICH YOU ARE TAKING IT.
5
INTERACTIVE AND ENGAGING REPORTS THAT A PERSON CAN TAKE FROM ROLE TO ROLE OR USE TO
EXPLORE ASPECTS OF HIS OR HER RELATIONSHIPS
AND LIFE.
“GIVES SUGGESTIONS IN VARIOUS CONTEXT
(COMMUNICATION, LEADERSHIP, PARENTING, TIME
MANAGEMENT, ETC) ON HOW I CAN LEVERAGE MY
STRENGTHS, AND BLINDSPOTS.”
We really like these themes! Hogan X has a mission
to profile every person on earth, so that people have
happier, more productive lives and relationships.
STAY WITH US AS WE BRING NEW
IDEAS, THINKING AND PRODUCTS TO
THE MARKET!