Relationship Between Big Five Personality Traits and Media Multitasking Behavior of the Indian Sample

Abstract

Media multitasking (MMT) is a growing phenomenon among Indian college students. Previous studies on other nationalities highlight that user’s personality traits play an important role in engaging them in this behavior. Using a sample of Indian college students, this study examined the relationship between MMT and the Big Five personality traits. It also examined the impact of age on the dynamics between personality and MMT. Results suggested that after controlling the socio-demographic factors, traits like openness to experience, extraversion, and neuroticism are positively related with high MMT. However, these observations are found to be moderated by age. These findings may help designing separate intervention techniques for alleviating excessive MMT behavior for different age groups considering their personality traits.