#51 AI and digital personality footprints, with Sandra Matz and Michal Kosinski

In this episode, Lisanne de Moor talks with Matthias Ziegler and René Mõttus about the change in editorship at the European Journal of Personality and how they reflect on and look ahead at their time in the role of Editor-in-Chief.  

During this episode, Lisanne de Moor talked with Jennifer Meyer and Jennifer Symonds about the links between personality and education – and the different levels at which to address this topic. They also discuss important real-world implications of the role that personality can play in education.  

René Mõttus talks to Sandra Matz and Michal Kosinski about the use of our digital footprints and AI in personality research and how this can be put to practical use. There is a lot going on in this field, with potentially profound theoretical and practical implications. Both Sandra and Michal are pioneers in this field, and Sandra has just published a book on the subject called Mindmasters.

In this episode, the three hosts reminisce about the past four years of the podcast—their favorite episodes, honorable mentions, and important lessons learned. They also talk about plans for the future of the podcast. The team’s newest addition, Celine Strohbehn, the podcast’s social media manager, is also introduced and her involvement with the podcast is described.

In this episode, Lisanne de Moor spoke with Filip De Fruyt about his career-long commitment to studying personality development in early life and the development of maladaptive personality traits in children. He also discusses historical shifts in the field that have allowed for new questions regarding development to emerge and to be studied.  

Much of psychological science is about measurement. But are we any good at it? How could we do (even) better? Ruben Arslan and Farid Anvari argue that researchers often act like there was no past, inventing ever new tests without re-using, improving or even referring to what already exists. This unchecked proliferation of tests has left many subfields of psychology fragmented, as research findings are often not comparable to others. But Ruben and Farid also offer a path forward and argue that there is much to be happy about in psychological measurements—it often works surprisingly well. Listen to find out why 0.42 is (not really) a magic number and how scientific debate can inspire a rap battle. Hosted by René Mõttus.

In this episode, Jaap Denissen, the new editor-in-chief of Personality Science, discusses the journal's recent relaunch with Rebekka Weidmann. Jaap shares insights into what the relaunch involved, the current initiatives and goals of the journal, and highlights a recently accepted special issue. Learn more about the exciting changes and future directions of this open-access journal.

In this episode, Rebekka Weidmann spoke with Nic Weststrate about how he incorporates different, but less represented methods in his research with LGBTQ+ communities, such as narratives, psychobiographies, and community-engaged work. He also talks about how the field can embrace a “Yes, and” mindset in better valuing different theoretical and empirical approaches.

In our daily lives, we may come across many situations in which we act in ways that are different from our typical personality. In this episode, Lisanne de Moor speaks with Evy Kuijpers about what counterdispositional behavior is and what the consequences of behaving in ways that are “out of character” are.

Loneliness has received a lot of attention—especially since the Covid-19 pandemic. In this episode, Rebekka Weidmann speaks with loneliness experts Marlies Maes, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Marcus Mund, and Susanne Bücker about the definition of loneliness and related but distinct constructs, the rising interest in loneliness, measurement issues, interventions, and more.