Study: Facebook Knows You Better Than Anyone Else

Facebook knows you better than your closest friends and even family members, according to a new study at University of Cambridge.

The study noted that a person's personality can be more accurately presented based on their digital interactions than with their friends, family, colleagues or spouses. So in this case, computer can judge you by the things you "Like" on Facebook.

The study authors also noted that only romantic partners are able to match the computer's personality-divining prowess.

"I would say that as humans, we are amazing at judging personalities," said Michal Kosinski, one of the three authors of the study and a psychologist who works at the Stanford University Computer Science Department. "What is striking is that computers can beat us at our own game using a simple model and big data."

More than 85,000 people volunteered for the study where they were answered 100 questions test personality questionnaire.

"Our findings highlight that people's personalities can be predicted automatically and without involving human social-cognitive skills."

Researchers examined what people like on Facebook, compared with their answers to the questionnaire to predict outcomes of a persons behavior. They underscored that computer personality judgements were more likely to predict life outcomes such as substance use, political attitudes, and physical health.

In some cases, computer even outperformed self-rated personality scores.

"Computers outpacing humans in personality judgment presents significant opportunities and challenges in the areas of psychological assessment, marketing, and privacy," researchers added.

The data for the study were obtained from the myPersonality project, a Facebook application in which between 2008 and 2012, 6 million myPersonality users took lengthy psychometrics test.

The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.