In the OCEAN acronym for five major personality traits, what does the letter E stand for?

• A. Expressiveness
• B. Extraversion
• C. Explicitness
• D. Empathy

Answer: (B)

Extraversion in the Big Five describes sociability and energy in social settings. It captures how talkative, outgoing, and energized by interactions a person tends to be, with high scorers enjoying social activity and low scorers often preferring quieter, solitary moments. This is why Extraversion is the E in OCEAN.

The other terms don’t map to the official label for this trait: Expressiveness isn’t the standard Big Five name for Extraversion, Explicitness isn’t a Big Five trait, and Empathy is more closely related to Agreeableness than to Extraversion.