Openness. McCrae (1996) suggested that openness to experience may have the strongest influence
on social and interpersonal phenomena among all of the five factors. Survey questions
on the openness dimension measure the propensity of individuals to display imagination, curiosity,
originality and open-mindedness. In contrast, low openness scores indicate people who are
practical, traditional and down-to-earth. According to Vodosek (2003) the literature oers very
little empirical evidence for an association with tie formation, but it suggests a positive relation
to satisfaction and stability once the relationship is formed. In the context of SNSs and members
coming from a technical university, we expect individuals with high scores on openness to be
more likely to try, to use and to keep up with new social networking technologies.