by , 1:20 PM EST, January 21st, 2008

Mindset Media surveyed 7,500 people and found that people who are highly open minded are 60 percent more likely than people in the general population to have purchased a Mac.

Mindset Media, which operates an online ad network that enables brand advertisers to reach millions of people with the personality traits that fit their brands, released a Mindset Profile of Mac users last week. Mindset Media uses a proprietary psychographic standard.

The study found that, "These purchasers are also more liberal, less modest, and more assured of their own superiority than the population at large."

"In a competitive market, like the one for personal computers, many brands compete for the same demographic, and what separates the winners from the losers is often the ability to identify and reach the right psychographic," said Sarah Welch, COO and co-founder of Mindset Media.

TMO notes that the study is not a huge surprise. It has always required people with healthy self-confidence to break away from the pack and embrace Apple products. What's interesting, however, is that more and more research companies are emerging to analyze and exploit these personality traits for the market as a whole, basically leveraging off what Apple has known how to do all along.

Mindset Media