Researchers from the department of Psychology at the University of Leipzig, in Germany, claim to have found a correlation between a person’s email address and their personality.

Just as eyes are said to be the windows of the soul, e-mail addresses could be the electronic equivalent in the online environment.

E-mail addresses represent the thinnest slice of information that people receive from one another. Using 599 e-mail addresses of young adults, their self-reported personality scores and the personality judgments of 100 independent observers, it was shown that personality impressions based solely on e-mail addresses were consensually shared by observers. Moreover, these impressions contained some degree of validity.

For my part, the domain name disassociated (which obviously forms part of my e-mail address) probably gives away far more than I would like it too. Elitist, snob, and hermit, are possibly ideas that a word like disassociated brings to mind.

Personally though I prefer the Groucho Marx sentiment, “I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.”