Posted on 03/12/2013 4:08:13 AM PDT by JoeProBono
Researchers at the University of Cambridge say that, using publicly-available Facebook Likes only, it's possible to get surprisingly accurate estimates of users’ race, age, IQ, sexuality, personality, substance use and political views.
"I am a great fan and active user of new amazing technologies, including Facebook. I appreciate automated book recommendations, or Facebook selecting the most relevant stories for my newsfeed," says said Michal Kosinski, Operations Director at Cambridge's Psychometric Centre.
"However, I can imagine situations in which the same data and technology is used to predict political views or sexual orientation, posing threats to freedom or even life."
The team analysed a dataset of over 58,000 US Facebook users, who volunteered their Likes, demographic profiles and psychometric testing results through the myPersonality application.
Facebook Likes were fed into algorithms and cross-checked with information from profiles and personality tests. The researchers then created statistical models able to predict personal details using Facebook Likes alone.
Their models, they say, proved 88 percent accurate for determining male sexuality, 95 percent accurate in distinguishing African-American from Caucasian American and 85 percent accurate differentiating Republican from Democrat. Christians and Muslims were correctly classified 82 percent of the time, and even relationship status and substance abuse could be accurately predicted between 65 and 73 percent of the time.
This information, though, didn't come from obvious Likes such as 'gay marriage', but relied on inference - aggregating huge amounts of less informative but more popular Likes such as music and TV shows........
No sh*t Sherlock... Of course my likes give me away.
Do any MEN go on Facebook or is it strictly chicks?
I’ll bet that since most have a picture of themselves in their profile helped this study a ton.
Gee, how could they tell the D’s from the R’s just by their links to sites like Free Republic or DU? That is simply amazing, NOT !!!
Wherever chicks go, men are sure to follow...
Does this mean they can tell I go to fat midget porn and Hello, Kitty! websites ?
Not so sure about that....I’m talking about MEN....do they go on Facebook?? I have never gone to Facebook, never will, so I really don’t know. I just think of it as for young girls.
Men go on to get chicks.
Hell yea it’s a great way to keep in touch with the kid’s, grandkids and other relatives, I’ve gotten in touch with some old friends also. Last year two old fiends I served with in Vietnam back in 71 came out and went quail hunting with me, and it was facebook that got us back together.
I wonder how much of our money was invested in that little bit of research?
You don’t CALL your kids and grandkids???
I’m in a couple of bands. Facebook is huge. I work at a computer and have facebook up in the background all the time (at work and home).
That being said, I have liked five bands over the years and NOTHING else. I may comment all the time, but I don’t “like” stuff. I also don’t play any games.
More importantly, was that study used for a certain political party in the last election...
All the time!
Wherever chicks go, men are sure to follow...
For young girls? Really?
Originally it was limited to college aged men and women. Are those the ‘young girls’ you are referring to?
To help you in your research, watch “Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge”.
It is a Hindi film from 2011 that is half in Hindi and half in English. It is a hilareously funny movie.
Not so sure about that....I’m talking about MEN....do they go on Facebook?? I have never gone to Facebook, never will, so I really don’t know. I just think of it as for young girls.
It’s like how us old people screwed up the demographics of the original Scion xB. It was supposed to be a trendy Gen X/Y edgy thing, but us old people said, “It seats four 6+ foot men, gets over 30 mpg, is fun to drive and I can haul tons of stuff in it - all for $16,000?! Where’s my checkbook.
It ruined the cars image.
But I digress...
There are LOTS of old people on Facebook. Especially old women.
What kind of utterly stupid question is that? Are you attempting to state that a website's use determines whether one is a MAN?
It's just a website, a communications tool. Use it or don't use it. Quit with the "deeper implications" crap.
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