Comparing Internet affinity and the Big Five personality factors between Hungarian and Israeli medical students

Objective: The Big Five personality factors are giving a general description of people's personality while Internet affinity is a term to describe how much people are emotionally attached to the Internet while using it. Since almost everyone today is using the Internet and people are using it for different reasons, it can be said that personality is influencing Internet use. With this study we wanted to investigate the relationship between Internet affinity and the Big Five personality factors. Method: 300 medical students filled out questionnaires connected to Internet affinity and the brief 44-items Big Five Inventory (John, 1990). The sample consisted of 150 Hungarian (75 males and 75 females) and 150 Israeli (75 males and 75 females) medical students. Results: Only Extraversion and Neuroticism was significantly related to Internet affinity in the Israeli sample but not in the Hungarian sample. Our results suggest that personality factors have an effect on Internet use. I. GENERAL INTERNET USE If one looks at the history of the Internet, it can be seen that it started to develop in the middle of the 1960s. In the beginning of 1990, the Internet developed quickly and the different web browsers were released to the general public in 1993-1994. Since this important step in the history of the Internet, it has been expanding quickly and it has attracted a number of different sectors in society, from commercial sectors to private ones. Even today it keeps growing at a rapid speed (Joinson, 2002). A majority of people, who are using the Internet, have a positive attitude towards it as a tool for carrying out everyday tasks and to use if for entertainment reasons (Boase, Horrigan, Wellman & Rainie, 2006). 49 % of the people who are considered being high users of the Internet (i.e., use it several times per day) are college graduates and better educated (Fallows, 2004). In 2007 it was shown that the Israeli population is high users of the Internet. According to this study, they surf more on the Internet than any other nationality by spending an average 57.5 hours every month on the Internet (comScore, 2007). This data can be compared to American users, who spend half of this amount on the Internet per month. In a study conducted in 2006, the nations ranking after Israel in Internet use were Finland, South Korea, Holland and Taiwan. When it comes to America, they ranked below the top 15 high users of the Internet. 51 % of Israelis above the age of 18 is using the Internet on a daily basis. The Internet in Israel is being accessed at an almost equal rate from school, home or the office. Most of the Israeli Internet users (96%) are using the Internet for information seeking purposes (Globes, 2003). Another popular Internet activity is to e-mail, with 73% of the population doing this Internet activity (Nua Internet Surveys, 2001). Using the Internet for information-seeking purposes and e-mailing were still the highest ranked online activities in 2006. When it comes to gender differences, 45% of the Israeli women use the Internet compared to 55% of the Israeli men (Ynet, 2006). In Hungary a different trend can be discovered than in Israel. In 2001, 17% of the Hungarian population had access to the Internet. In 2004, the Internet use was higher, with 40% Hungarians using the Internet fairly frequently. The same year, 14% had access to the Internet at home (TARKI Research Institute, 2004). In 2005 more and more people had Internet access at home. When it comes to the most popular online activities, it has been shown that 96% are using e-mailing every week and 91% are using the Internet for information seeking purposes during one week. Other popular motives for using the Internet are entertainment Comparing Internet affinity and the Big Five personality factors between Hungarian and Israeli medical students 2 of 9 motives (TARKI Research Institute, 2001). There are no significant gender differences in Internet use, which can be seen by the fact that women access and use the Internet almost as much as men (Mediainfo, 2005). It has been shown that 35% of the women and 39% of the men are Internet users. The most popular online activity for women is to look for information related to health and for men it is to download games, music and pictures (TARKI Research Institute, 2005). In general it has been shown that students are using the Internet more and more increasingly (Matthew & Varagoor, 2001), which is why we chose to do this study with students. Since the Israeli students are studying outside their home country and do not have frequent face-to-face contact with their family and friends at home, we were interested in seeing if they have a higher affinity for the Internet. We were also interested in seeing if Internet affinity is connected differently to the Big 5 factors (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, Openness to experience) for the Hungarian and Israeli students. It has been shown for example that people higher on Neuroticism have a higher affinity for the Internet, whereas people scoring high on Extraversion have lower affinity for the Internet (Hamburger and Ben-Artzi, 2000). The reason why we chose Israeli students to be part of this study was that we wanted to use a group of foreign students who have a high student percentage at the Semmelweis Medical University in Budapest, to have as many foreign students available as possible. The Semmelweis University is a very well-known university in many countries outside Hungary and it has a very prestigious reputation. The university has a medical educational program for foreign students in German and English, which makes it possible for students from other countries to come and study at this university. Literature has shown that people's attitude towards the Internet (i.e., Internet affinity) is determined by personality (AmichaiHamburger, 2005) and with this study we would like to confirm this association. II. BRIEF REVIEW OF THE BIG 5 Professionals have always been interested in finding a taxonomy showing explicit areas of personality. After several decades of research within this field, researchers are starting to reach a consensus on a universal classification of personality in the form of the “Big 5” personality factors. These factors have emerged by analyzing the natural vocabulary people are using to describe others and themselves. The Big 5 classification embodies a collection of diverse personality dimensions collected in a common framework and, importantly, it is not trying to replace prior classifications (John, Donahue, & Kentle, 1991). A main aspect of the Big 5 taxonomy is that it does not say that differences in personality can be explained by only five traits. The five factors are showing different personality characteristics at a very broad level and each of the five factors stand for a variety of distinctive personality traits