"Who am I?" That's always been a proverbial question, isn't it? Those that pertain to ourselves are the hardest to answer. However, in a new study, knowing who we are may be as simple as checking our Facebook likes.
A group of researchers from two of the most prestigious universities in the country, Stanford and Cambridge, took on a rather interesting study: will you be able to know a person's personality by simply checking his or her Facebook likes?
It turns out that the answer may be a yes. It's actually a large study since it's participated by more than 85,000 volunteers who, of course, already have a Facebook account.
Using a Facebook-installed app called myPersonality, these volunteers then answered around a hundred questions that are geared toward determining the level of openness, neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness, which are considered to be the 5 main traits a person can have. They also permitted the researchers to check on their respective Facebook likes (or the pages they've liked).
These volunteers, meanwhile, have the option to share the same application to their network, giving their friends and family the chance to identify the person's personality through a shorter test. At least 17,000 of these volunteers had at least one family or friend who answered the app's questionnaire.
The researchers then used special computer software for big data to create their analysis. They then discovered that their choices of Facebook pages reveal more of their true personality and that their likes are more accurate than the evaluations of their own friends and family.
Putting this into perspective, this may be exploited in the future, wherein machines and perhaps social media may be able to provide an engagement that is more on the emotional level since they have a better idea of who you are. However, this also highlights the vulnerability of users as others may be able to "read" a person's personality through these Facebook likes. Thus, they urge a more stringent privacy policy.