Facebook Inc (FB) Knows Its Users Better Than Friends, Family [STUDY]

On Facebook, there are pages for several communities, businesses and others such as Wikipedia, hugs and R&B, and liking those pages carries a meaning. While the majority believes this doesn’t reveal much about the personality of an individual, it actually it does.

Facebook “like” reveals much more

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) posts are regularly liked and shared by users. The posts and pages liked by users give information of a profound nature and an idea about the nature of an individual. Researchers at the University of Cambridge and Stanford conducted a study and found that if they analyze the likes made by an individual on Facebook, a strikingly accurate personality assessment can be made. Such assessments are even better than those made by friends and family members of the individual.

“We were surprised to find that actually computers are beating us at something we excel at,” Michal Kosinski, a Stanford University postdoctoral fellow and co-lead author.

The study was published on Monday in the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers chose common human personality traits that can be easily predicted, such as openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. Researchers wanted to see if it is possible for a computer system to give accurate results about personality traits.

More accurate than humans

A special computer model was created by the researchers for the study, and the tool went through data from 86,220 volunteers. The computer model analyzed their Facebook “likes,” including those of pages, articles, musicians, books, and others. A survey comprised of 100 questions was also required to be completed by the volunteers via the app myPersonality.

The findings from the study revealed some striking correlations between likes and particular traits. For instance, users who were liberal and artistic were found to like meditation and David Bowie. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) users who were more outgoing and had the trait of active extroversion, were found to “like” Lil’ Wayne and Mike “the Situation” Sorrentino. People who “like” Wikipedia are shy and reserved, concluded the study. Co-operative people liked hugs, while well-organized people like R&B more, according to the study.

Also users of the myPersonality app had their personalities judged by friends and family via a 10-question survey on Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB). After studying all the data, it was found that computers were better at analyzing the personality traits of the individuals than humans.