Determining someone’s true personality is no easy feat, unless you have his or her phone. That’s the claim of new Nokia-sponsored research that suggests personality types can be determined by the apps on an individual’s phone.

Today.com released an article about appitypes that interviewed Nokia consultant Trevor Pinch, a science and technology professor at Cornell University, who said the applications capture people’s imagination.

At St. Thomas students can be seen satisfying their appetites for apps with a variety of apps that are entertaining and useful.

“Apps are an expression, just like all of the other things in our lives that we use to express ourselves,” said communication and journalism professor Wendy Wyatt. “We choose things to include in our lives that help express who we are.”

Pinch surveyed 5,000 users in 10 countries to determine what type of personality each user had.

For instance, an “apthusiast” is someone who feels the need to find and download the latest apps. An “appcentric” is an extreme user who uses his or her cellphone as a main source of communication. Other people use apps to keep up with their jobs.

“As an advertising major you pretty much have to be up on Twitter and Facebook, all of your social media,” junior Courtney Crockett said. “It’s becoming part of your job now, so it is nice to have it on your phone and get updates by the minute.”

But freshman Adam Ben Salem said he isn’t convinced the apps accurately portray people.

“I think they’re just more general apps for day-to-day use but not necessarily anything personal,” Ben Salem said.

Wyatt said it’s important to remember that using apps to determine personality is not a one-way street.

“Its not only us picking things and saying ‘O.K., this expresses who I am,’ but it’s also those things giving feedback to us,” Wyatt said.

Carly Samuelson can be reached at samu5380@stthomas.edu.