Summary information

Study title

BBC Big Personality Test, 2009-2011: Dataset for Mapping Personality across Great Britain

Creator

University of Cambridge, Department of Psychology
British Broadcasting Corporation

Study number / PID

7656 (UKDA)

10.5255/UKDA-SN-7656-1 (DOI)

Data access

Restricted

Series

Not available

Abstract

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The data are from a large Internet-based survey designed and administered in collaboration with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Between November 2009 and April 2011, 588,014 individuals competed the “Big Personality Test”. Volunteers were told that the survey was designed to assess personality and that by clicking on the link to proceed to the survey they were giving their consent to participate. Informed consent was not requested from the next of kin, caretakers, or guardians on behalf of minors or children because only individuals 18 and older were eligible to participate. Initiating the survey was used as a record of participant consent. To complete the survey, respondents clicked on a link on the BBC’s Lab UK website. Before beginning the survey, respondents were asked to create a BBC ID if they did not already have one. This was used to invite participants to take part in future projects and to prevent individuals from repeat responding – the survey could not be completed more than once with the same ID. After completing the survey, participants received customized feedback about their personalities based on their responses to the survey items. A primary aim of the data was to map the distribution of personality in Great Britain (GB), so of all the participants who completed the survey, only those who reported living in England, Wales, and Scotland were included. Participants who did not complete the personality measure were also excluded. These selection criteria resulted in a total sample of 386,375 respondents. In the present dataset, the researchers are sharing select demographic variables and the personality data used for mapping personality variation across GB. The dataset includes postcode sector information, which allows for aggregating responses for 380 Local Authority Districts. Further information can be found on the BBC Lab UK Big Personality Test webpage....
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Methodology

Data collection period

Not available

Country

England and Wales, Scotland

Time dimension

Cross-sectional (one-time) study

Analysis unit

Individuals
Cross-national

Universe

Internet-survey respondents in England (335,114), Scotland (33,353) and Wales (17,908).

Sampling procedure

Convenience sample

Kind of data

Numeric

Data collection mode

Internet web-based survey

Access

Publisher

UK Data Service

Publication year

2015

Terms of data access

The Data Collection is available to UK Data Service registered users subject to the End User Licence Agreement.

Access is limited to applicants based in HE/FE institutions, for not-for-profit education and research purposes only.

Additional conditions of use apply:

The BBC Data Collection shall not be used in a manner which:

  • distorts the original meaning of the BBC Data Collection, for example by changing the context;
  • discriminates against any specific social group or otherwise exploit vulnerable sections of society;
  • promotes, encourages or facilitates violence;
  • promotes, encourages or facilitates illegal activity;
  • promotes, encourages or facilitates terrorism or other activities which risk national security;
  • promotes the tobacco, armaments, alcohol or pornographic industries;
  • encourages hatred on grounds of race, religion, gender, disability, age or sexual orientation;
  • promotes, encourages or facilitates anti-social behaviour;
  • might be perceived as damaging the BBC's reputation for accuracy or impartiality; or
  • otherwise brings the BBC into disrepute.

Related publications

Not available