Does extraversion correlate with style of epistemological justification?

Abstract: We all have beliefs, and we justify these beliefs to ourselves and to others when questioned. The structure that these beliefs are built upon is a rationale, that itself, consists of different types of epistemological justifications. In this study I examined if the level of extraversion an individual expresses correlated with different styles of epistemological justification. The hypothesis was that there is a correlation between level of extraversion and propensity to make externalistic epistemological justifications. This correlation would be expressed as extraverted individuals would justify their epistemological beliefs like Externalists (by referring to things in the world), and that introverted individuals would justify their epistemological beliefs like Internalists (by referring to a private reference system of cognitions). An epistemological justification scale consisting of nine statements was constructed, and collected together with a standardized questionnaire measuring extraversion. Fifty-six people participated in the study. The epistemological justification scale did not achieve a sufficient level of reliability and the correlational results were non-significant. Based on the participant’s answers, it was concluded that either the epistemological justification statements were too abstract for the participants to understand, or that the participants did not know why they believed what they believed, on the abstract epistemological level.