Mood swings? How playing golf shows an extrovert personality

IF you’re the kind of person who whiles away every free afternoon on the golf course, you now have an excuse for it – it’s part of your extrovert personality.

And while lounging around the house with no clothes on might be considered laziness to some, it’s actually a sign of high intelligence.

According to psychologists, a few of our everyday behaviours can give away what kind of person we are.

We are each said to fall under one of the Big Five personality types – extrovert, agreeable, hard- working conscientious, emotionally stable and intellectual.

As part of the study, US researchers looked at 765 volunteers who came under these categories to see what they did most often. Their findings reveal that extroverts play golf, discuss ways to make money, loudly cheer when watching sports and tell dirty jokes.

Meanwhile agreeable people most often sing in the shower, do the ironing and wash dishes – which may explain why they tend to be liked.

Those of us with a high intellect, on the other hand, are most likely to buy organic food, speak another language, lounge around the house with no clothes on and play the piano.

People high in conscientiousness rarely sleep late and work too hard to find time to read. The emotionally stable are identifiable by being comfortable in their own skins, which means they do not feel the need to diet or swear.

Study authors Dr Benjamin Chapman and Professor Lewis Goldberg, said a surprisingly frequent behaviour for extroverts is to talk about money and thus earn more of it. They wrote: ‘These achievements may be attributed to their charismatic interpersonal qualities.’

The findings, by researchers at the University of Rochester and Oregon Research Institute, are published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.