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Mac vs PC People: Personality Traits & Aesthetic/Media Choices

Today we’re releasing a new report called “Mac vs PC People: Personality Traits & Aesthetic/Media Choices.” As the name suggests, the report explores the personality and the preferences of self-identified “Mac People” or “PC People” beyond just their choice in computers.

Importantly, the baseline question used to segment the two groups didn’t ask about computer ownership but simply how users perceive themselves. So really this study is about the traits and characteristics of people who identify as either a “PC Person” or “Mac Person”, regardless of whether they use one or both types of computers (or neither type, for that matter). More than 76,000 Hunch users answered the base question.

Here’s the executive summary:

•Mac People are more likely to see the existing world in a light of “sameness” and thus express a need to be perceived as different and unique. This is consistently reflected in their aesthetic choices such as bold colors, “retro” designs, one-of-a-kind clothing and highly stylized art.

•PC People are more likely to see the world as “different enough already” and appreciate “being in tune with those around them.” This is reflected in their more subtle, “mainstream modern” (neither retro nor extremely contemporary) design choices and their practical choices in clothing, footwear, and cars that favor getting the job done rather than making an overt design statement.

•Media choices and preferences vary greatly between the two groups, with Mac People trending toward more independent films, specialized comedians and design-centric magazines, and PC People trending toward more mainstream alternatives as well as sports.

•From a personality perspective, Mac People are more likely to describe themselves as “verbal”, “conceptual”, and “risk takers”, with PC People countering that they are “numbers oriented”, “factual” and “steady, hard workers”.

There are a lot of fun details and images in the full 13 page report, which is also available in a downloadable pdf version. And once again, we had an illustrator distill all this down to make the following 2 pictures roughly worth the report’s 3,000 words.