Does Your Hat Speak Your Mind? Personality Traits and Aesthetic Preferences for Hats Among Italian Young Adults

The relationship between personality and the various aspects of human cognition that influence behavior has long been recognized as central to understanding individual differences. The study investigates the relationship between personality and aesthetic preference, in relation to a specific category of objects (hats). An online questionnaire showing grayscale images of 34 iconic types of hats (Set 1) and eight types of baseball caps (Set 2) was presented to 539 Italian adults, asking them to rate how much they liked them and how likely they were to wear them. The Big Five Inventory-2 was used to evaluate personality. Significant associations were found between the five personality traits (open mindedness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and negative emotionality) and the participants' ratings of both liking and willingness to wear the hats in both Sets 1 and 2. The results of the study are relevant not only for basic research but also, potentially, suggest applicative developments in the domain of design and customized recommendation systems.