Intersection of Big Five Personality Traits and Substance Use on Social Media Discourse: AI-Powered Observational Study

Comprehensive Summary

This study analyzed social media posts to see if there is a correlation between the big five personality traits and substance use (SU). Hundreds of millions of public posts from social media outlets from 2019 to 2021 were analyzed using natural language processing (NLP) and deep learning models. From these posts, SU-related posts were identified and scores for the Big Five personality traits were extracted, including emotions and user demographics. From the results, the two strongest positive personality factors were found to be extraversion and agreeableness. On the other hand, neuroticism was found to be a strong factor protecting against SU, an unexpected finding. In the discussion, the authors talked about how SU was more linked to more social traits, while traits such as neuroticism show a negative correlation with SU. The authors also commented on how current risk profiles for SU may not apply uniformly to digital environments.

Outcomes and Implications

This research is important as it can help clinicians understand what groups of people are at risk of SU. Understanding personality traits of people at risk of SU can help with targeted interventions. In terms of prevention strategies, the authors suggest that policymakers should address the environments in which SU is normalized, especially among agreeable and extraverted people.