Large individual differences are commonly found in the behavior of oct
opuses, even in standardized situations. Octopus rubescens (n = 44) we
re tested in 3 situations (alerting, threat, and feeding) to quantify
this variation. A factor analysis of resulting behaviors isolated 3 or
thogonal dimensions of their variability. Activity, Reactivity, and Av
oidance, which accounted for 45% of the variance. The similarity of th
ese factors to dimensions of personality in humans and individual diff
erences in animals suggests there may be commonalities in such variati
on across phyla.