Tweet, Post, Share: Decoding Personality and Gender Effects on Social Media Self-Disclosure among University Undergraduates

Oluwafemi P Famakinde (University of Ibadan. Nigeria)
Hammed A Arowosaye (University of Ibadan. Nigeria)
Emmanuel E Uye (University of Ibadan, Nigeria)

Indonesian Psychological Research
Vol. 6 No. 2 (2024)

Social media is an emerging social platform through which millions of people share information and interact with one another daily. Studies on the predictors of self-disclosure on social media tend to give varying results. Therefore, this study investigated personality traits and gender as predictors of self-disclosure on social media among university undergraduates. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey design while a purposive sampling technique was used to select the study population. Data were collected from 301 undergraduates using validated questionnaires and analyzed using an independent samples t-test and multiple regression analysis at p  < 0.05 level of significance. The result showed that personality traits of extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experience, conscientiousness and neuroticism jointly predicted self-disclosure on social media among study participants. Also, the result revealed that gender significantly influences self-disclosure on social media among study participants such that female undergraduates were higher in self-disclosure on social media than their male counterparts. The study concluded that personality traits and gender are strong predictors of self-disclosure on social media among study participants.