I read that grouchy kids playing Cops and Robbers will kick the kid who "dies" and that neat Sims spend more time making the bed than messy ones do. What are some of the other animations that are tied to personality?

Well, asking a neat kid to clean up something, they will sometimes do the victory/"Yesss!" gesture. While a not-neat kid will do the "Oh man! Do I really have to?" gesture.

Lazy sims slouch along more slowly than active ones. An active neat sim asked to clean up - whether by the player or by another sim using influence points - will do this wonderful little strut! Shy sims walk pulled-in on themselves, looking down and with their hands folded, while outgoing ones stride along with their elbows out, fingershooting people. Shy sims flirt differently than outgoing ones, and also accept compliments differently. A shy recipient of admiration looks surprised and points to himself with one finger, cringing a little, a "who, me? Shucks" gesture; while an outgoing one throws her head back and points to herself with her thumb, in a "Yeah, I am awesome, thanks for noticing!" Shy flirters wring their hands and look down, sometimes hunch their shoulders or rub the backs of their necks. Grouchy sims cross their arms and sneer at people even during good conversations; nice sims tent their hands and look toward the sky.

I read on a thread here once that lazy or sloppy (or maybe both?) sims will just sort of "throw" the sheets on the bed while making it. I tested this, and it was true, it's actually funny.

Lazy sims sort of just stand there leaning, with sort of a...dead, zombieish look. Funny at first, but I do find myself a teensy bit annoyed after awhile.

There's definitely a difference between how shy and outgoing sims take admires and flirts. I know there's a personality trait that cause sims to go around pointing both their fingers in sort of a "you go!" way at everything. (I can't think of the right term for it, and I feel realllly stupid about that!) I think it's either really playful or really outgoing.

A lot of the animation differences I've noticed are autonomous, but EA really put a lot of effort into them.

edit - I didn't see Peni Griffin's post so I repeated some stuff, sorry!

My Sim, Phil Jones, is active and playful. When directed to watch TV, he'll be all like, "Man, do I HAVE to?" ...Yet when he goes to watch TV autonomously he'll be perfectly fine with it. :P

When eating from a bag of chips, a sloppy sim grabs a handful and stuffs them in his/her mouth with crumbs flying from his/her mouth. A neat sim on the other hand will take one chip at a time, gently put it into his/her mouth and eat the chip.

Messy sims may also eat out of bins as well as rummage for items. I had one recently give herself food poisoning from eating from a neighbours rubbish bin.

Male sloppy sims will also pee on bushes and all sloppy sims will pee in the shower.

Shy sims:
* Will sometimes point to themselves in a "Me? You want me to do what?" when asked to do romantic interactions or practice speech in front of the mirror.
* Sometimes walk with their head bowed down, wringing their hands
* Dance using restrained motions
* Have the most adorable "charm" animation ever

Outgoing sims:
* Walk around fingergunning to EVERYONE
* Occasionally do a cheeky pose-and-wave idle (females only) or a silly dance move idle (males only)
* "Sweet talk" flirt uses the "wolf whistle" animation
* Extremely outgoing sims will hot tub in the nude

Nice sims:
* Do the "Good Witch" idles: the "hi! hiiii!" wave, the blissed-out smile and sigh, and just a swaying, smiling idle

Grouchy sims:
* Will sometimes grumble or do a fist-pound while walking
* Have a grumbling idle
* Can use the "crank call" phone interaction
* Can cheat at chess
* (Happily) storm over to the target when directed to do a mean interaction
* Sometimes punch the target hard in the arm while playing the punching game
* Grouchy kids will kick their fallen playmate during the cops-and-robbers game

Sloppy sims:
* Spray food everywhere while eating
* Spray food everywhere while cooking
* Pee in the shower
* FLUSHING IS FOR OTHER PEOPLE
* Some autonomously eat out of the trashcans, though all can eat out of the trashcans if prompted
* Walk around scratching their armpits or rooting in their ears
* Belch and fart at the table

Neat sims:
* Eat and cook very neatly
* Look disgusted when faced with sloppy eating
* Have bubbles come up from the sponge when they autonomously clean (and they will)
* Do a happy bouncy walk when prompted to clean things

*Playful sims:
* Do the "Me? Really?" point when asked to play chess
* Arrr! Very playful sims can play pirate in the bathtub, autonomously or directed

*Serious sims:
* Have an idle where they tap the side of their head, then go (in Simlish) "Eureka!"

Lazy sims:
* Slouch when idle

Active sims:
* Sometimes shadow-box while idle

I had an evil sim who developed a habit of stopping randomly, pointing at someone or something and doing an evil laugh. It was only funny the first few times though. When he couldn't even go to the toilet without stopping on the way to point and laugh it became annoying. DX

Then he spread the behaviour to his daughter (complete with evil child laugh). I don't know if she was just copying daddy, because she had 5 nice points. When he did it to the mail girl and she started doing it back I had to stop playing that family for a while in fear of an epidemic spreading.

And, oh yes, grouchy sims play catch and football by hurling the ball at the head of the person playing with them; then, when the other person objects, shrug and smile sheepishly before doing it again. They also cheat at chess: "Look, over there!" "What, where?" "Don't you see that?" (Make illegal move.)

This thread is great. I now realize that I pay far too little attention to the gestures and faces Sims make! Can't wait to check some of the things out in game.

I guess neat sims autonomously cleaning windows also belongs on this list. Didn't playful Sims (or was it active?) also slide down rails of stairs when in a hurry?

I haven't seen a lot of these. How many points or lack of points did the sims have to have before they started doing these actions?

Generally speaking, the extremes of behavior can be counted on to show up at the extreme ends of the spectrum - three or less, seven or more. On some of these behaviors, however, more than one stat is involved, some of them are age-specific, and the range may be broader or narrower. For example, almost any teen may slide down a bannister (but it's most likely with playful ones) or commit a noogy (but especially grouchy ones; less-grouchy sims with need to be more playful and/or outgoing to do it, but the grouchiest ones will do it even when also shy and serious). I think all my naked hot-tubbers are 9-10 outgoing, but 10 is a guarantee.

Window-cleaning requires both high neat points and idle time, which is why a lot of people have never seen it.

They have to be pretty extreme. For example, to pee in the shower, a Sim needs two Neat points or fewer. To cheer for being told to clean, they need to have nine Neat points or higher. If you tend to make your sims with between three to seven points in all stats, you're unlikely to see these unless you marry in an extreme Sim.

Playful sims also might autonomously go play with refrigerator doors.
my serious Sims slouch when walking, when they are told to watch TV.

The slouching bothered me so much that I downloaded a mod to stop that. They look kind of fidgety now (don't know quite what to do with their arms ), but watching them imitate a gorilla was worse.

Also, you can get extreme Sims through birth or adoption. That's how I found some of my teens' characteristics. (I keep forgetting to check unless they do something extreme!)

These little nuances remind me of why I like this game so much.

I've seen the cheer for cleaning at 6 or 7 neat points.

Worse than slouching is the 'I have a stick up my butt' walk they do at Uni. XD

I had a teen sim that I believe it was the pairing of his playful and mean points, would noogie his sister, almost nonstop. because of a challenge they were in, they had to get married, so as to do it safely, I broke up their family ties and got them married as teens. He's a married man now, she is not recognized as his sister in game anymore, and in my head he is the emperor of his land, and yet as soon as he finished kissing his bride, he pulled her down into a noogie again!

The cheating at chess ("look over there" animation) only seems to happen with Sims that have one or zero nice points. Albany Capp has one nice point and he's always cheating at chess, but Consort and Tybalt Capp don't cheat and they both have two nice points. Grouchy Sims will also yell at the mirror when told to practice speech. Sims with 8 outgoing points will go to college classes in their pajamas, and Sims with 9 or more will go to class in their underwear unless the player can get them to change before they go.

Interesting - although I've entire families now who cheat at chess - they've learned it off their parents or spouses. I'll have to check if they're all one or less nice points or if even nicer sims can learn the action. (I had a bad run of identical second sibling to start with and most of my first and second generation sims ended up with only one nice point - has caused quite a bit of friction and arguments!)

Nice ones can't learn how to cheat at chess, though it'd be cute if they could!

I find that Outgoing sims tend to... "talk with their hands" more than shy sims. Most (ie all) of my sims were shy until I started rolling/randomizing and I had this one sim with 10 outgoing chatting and I just stopped everything to watch her...
Seems to me that messy sims don't (autonomously) hang up the phone after they're done with it.
Nice sims tend to be less likely to complain if the person playing the piano sucks.

I have NEVER seen "slide down banister" - we are talking sim2 aren't we? Only certain stairs? Can you DIRECT?

Shy Sims seem... very scared/worried about their surroundings. They're cute!
Lazy Sims slouch and are very nasty, they have more "gas" (if you know what I mean) than the other Sims and can lick plates clean and stuff like that.
I've also noticed that Neat Sims are more organised and like to put books on the bookshelf instead of the floor.

Yes, they are talking about the rails of the stairway and you can do that in TS2. I don't know how though.