On the null relationship between personality types and passwords

Amit Maraj, Miguel Vargas Martin, Matthew Shane, Mohammad Mannan

Abstract: We performed a preliminary investigation of the relationship between the Big-five personality traits and the strength of selected and created online security passwords. Five-hundred and ten participants were recruited through MTurk and asked a) to complete a Big-five personality inventory, b) to select from a list of available passwords the one they felt was most secure, and c) to create unique, secure passwords for their own online protection. The security strength of participants' selected/created passwords was rated via Zxcvbn, and evaluated on a variety of additional security-based criteria (e.g., password length, inclusion of special characters). In all cases results failed to identify significant relationship between the strength of the selected/chosen password and any Big-five personality traits (when employing appropriately stringent control for multiple corrections). These null results suggest that other factors beyond an individual's personality may hold greater influence over the strength of selected/created online passwords. We present detailed observations and findings from our experiment, discuss potential considerations for contradictions, and suggest possibilities for future research into the password/personality relationship, including the potential use of enhanced password strength meters and tailored security nudges.