Hey guys, Julia here for DNews

Once upon a time, in the early days of the internet. People used the platform to play

around with identity, you could be whoever you wanted to be. You could even be different

people! It was so much fun. Sadly.. those days are gone. According to researchers from

the University of Washington most people today say their online persona and their offline

self are pretty similar.

There are a number of studies that show how much first impressions matter. One of the

first things people see about us online is our username or email address. And man. Does

it matter. Which means that how you present yourself online, says a lot about you.

We concern ourselves so much with the big parts of our online persona, like our profile

picture or our bio, yet a lot can be inferred from something as small as an email address.

One study published in the Journal of Research in Personality called “How extraverted is

honey.bunny77@hotmail.de?” found that people are actually pretty good at inferring personality

from email addresses.

Researchers looked at almost 600 e-mail addresses of young adults. They collected data from

personality tests that judged traits like neuroticism, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness,

and narcissism and extraversion. The researchers then asked 100 other people what their impressions

of those people’s personalities were. They found that most people’s impressions were

pretty much the same based only on e-mail address alone.

Which you know, personality psychology is a little controversial, but the study at least

showed there are certain stereotypes at play with email addresses and those stereotypes

affect how people see you.

Which matters a lot when you’re trying to land a job. One study published in the journal

Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking found that your email address makes a difference

when applying to jobs. It kind of sounds like a no-duh thing, but there actually hasn’t

been a lot of empirical evidence to back it up.

73 professional recruiters looked at fake resumes, the resumes had a mix of things like

spelling errors, different typefaces and informal and formal email addresses. The recruiters

judged the applicants on intelligence and the 6 personality traits I mentioned earlier.

The study found that a less than professional email address like luv_u_sanne@hotmail.com,

was just as hurtful as spelling mistakes.

Even which email service you use says a lot about you. It could indicate how “tech savvy”

you are. Mailchimp did a survey that found that gmail and hotmail users tend be used

by the young adults with a median age of 31. Yeah I know Hotmail is so passe to us in the

States… but it’s still popular by young people abroad. Gmail users use Google Chrome

and like tech stuff. If you use a yahoo address you’re probably around settling down age,

like 34, you like religion and maybe interested in recruitment and staffing. (and you’re

probably no fun at parties) If your email ends in an AOL.com or Comcast.com you might

be in your mid 40s and are interested in the finer things in life like good food and gardening.

So whether we like it or not, our email addresses say a lot about us.

So much science to learn, you guys! So much I couldn’t possibly fit it all into one

episode. Fortunately, we’ll have a chance to talk MORE science on Thursday April 9 at

2 PM, pacific 5 eastern. That’s when we’re hanging out with Mitchell Moffit and Greg

Brown from ASAPScience and Joe Hanson from It's Okay to Be Smart! RSVP with the link

in the description because you do not want to miss it.