Using new software, researchers have found that one’s activity on Facebook can reveal more about personality than close friends and family members.
While millions of people click those Facebook “Like" buttons to reveal their preferences for movies, books and pictures, they are really exposing their personality traits, according to a recent University of Cambridge and Stanford University study.
The research team used an algorithm to collect the subjects’ Facebook “likes,” putting the numbers against data collected through surveys taken by the subjects’ friends. Researchers rated them on openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
“Using several criteria, we show that computers’ judgments of people’s personalities based on their digital footprints are more accurate and valid than judgments made by their close others or acquaintances (friends, family, spouse, colleagues, etc.),” the researchers wrote.
“The computer’s prediction based on Facebook likes was almost 15% more accurate on average.”
The research was aimed at creating programs that could better assess personality traits in the hopes of replacing human judgments in situations where such information is needed.
