A new GLO Discussion Paper provides evidence thatworkers’ performance in online microtasks is positively related to extraversion and agreeableness.

GLO Discussion Paper No. 338, 2019

Personality Traits and Performance in Online Labour Markets – Download PDF
by Mourelatos, Evangelos & Giannakopoulos, Nicholas & Tzagarakis, Manolis

GLO Fellow Nicholas Giannakopoulos

Author Abstract: In this paper we investigate the impact of non-cognitive skills on the quality of task-specific outcomes by conducting a quasi-experiment on a well-known online crowdsourcing platform. We show that a worker’s performance varies with personality traits, gender, human capital, crowdsourcing experience and work effort. Regarding the effects of non-cognitive skills, we find that workers’ performance in online microtasks is positively related to extraversion and agreeableness. The positive impact of extroverts is also revealed when performance is adjusted for task completion time. These findings provide implications regarding the integration of selection mechanisms in online labour matching platforms aiming in uncovering microworkers soft skills to improve performance and consequently the allocation of resources in online microtasks.

GLO Discussion Papers are research and policy papers of the GLO Network which are widely circulated to encourage discussion. Provided in cooperation with EconStor, a service of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, GLO Discussion Papers are among others listed in RePEc (see IDEAS, EconPapers). Complete list of all GLO DPs downloadable for free.

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