Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Using Facebook Data, Algorithm Predicts Personality Better Than Friends

Posted by Soulskill on from the worst-scifi-plot-ever dept.

sciencehabit writes: A new study of Facebook data shows that machines are now better at sussing out our true personalities than our friends. One of the standard methods for assessing personality is to analyze people's answers to a 100-item questionnaire with a statistical technique called factor analysis. There are five main factors that divide people by personality—openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism—which is why personality researchers call this test the Big Five. People can accurately predict how their friends will answer the Big Five questions. ... Compared with humans predicting their friends' personalities by filling out the Big Five questionnaire, the computer's prediction based on Facebook likes was almost 15% more accurate on average, the team reports online today in PNAS (abstract). Only people's spouses were better than the computer at judging personality.

5 of 80 comments (clear)

  1. Uhm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Haven't they used the same data to both build and test the model? That's Methodology 101 fail right there.

  2. 2015: Still using Facebook by kheldan · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why? Why, with everything that everyone knows about Facebook, all the privacy violations, all the obvious signs that they really don't give a rat's ass about the users, just the money that users' data can earn them, would anyone still be using Facebook? Is it willful ignorance? Or is it deep denial? Now, we find out: Facebook can and is being used to profile people. Come on, is this what you all really want?

    Disregard Facebook. Take your life back.

    --
    Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
    1. Re:2015: Still using Facebook by mythosaz · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why are people still using Facebook? Because other people are, and they use it as their medium to schedule events and coordinate activities.

      90% of my Facebook activity is devoted to participation in a handful of secret/private groups, and the other 10% is responding to event invites -- some of which are "go, no-go," others are FCFS based on responses to the invites.

      Also, I mostly DNGAF about Facebook (or Google, or whomever) knowing what flavor potato chip I prefer because I used my club card at the store. Google gave me $15.98 on their Opinion Rewards platform for knowing even MORE about me. Whee!

    2. Re:2015: Still using Facebook by solios · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It doesn't matter if you use Facebook or not - they can already infer that TV shows and musicians exist via user data and automatically construct pages for them - WKRP In Cincinnati is a good example or was when I looked at it last summer. If they can infer media exists then it stands to reason that they can infer that you exist. Imagine that, if you will - a near future in which you have a fairly accurate social media profile rather you want one or not.

  3. All in the definitions by BarryHaworth · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The comment that the algorithm does better at predicting personality than a person's friends will depend very strongly on how you define a friend. I have a very large number of Facebook friends about whom I know almost nothing, so I am not at all surprised that an algorithm will do better.

    --
    I am a Statistician. One false move and you are a Statistic