What’s on your mind? Social media can’t reveal that without your say so, but researchers have found ways to read other details about you like personality type and even sexuality just from your social media activity; gaining a kind of inner sight.
Here are some unexpected ways these social media sleuths are doing it.
Personality: Posted
A study by Brunel University found that what you like to post on Facebook suggests your personality. So if you often post about:
- Your partner – you tend to have low self-esteem
- Your children – you tend to be conscientious (get things done)
- Your social activities and daily life – you tend to be an extrovert
- Intellectual topics – you tend to be open to experience (eg. travel, even risky behaviour)
- Your accomplishments, diets or exercise – you tend towards narcissism
“You are what you post” isn’t far off the mark.
What Your ‘Like’s Tell the World
Similarly, Stanford University researchers were able to gauge people’s personalities within the Big Five traits (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism) using just an algorithm and the Facebook pages they liked – people who liked meditation, TED talks and Salvador Dali tended to score higher in openness, while those who liked reality star Snookie, dancing and partying were more extraverted. Meanwhile another program at the University of Cambridge was able, via liked pages, to tell if a guy was gay or straight 90% of the time. Outed by a computer – now that’s a first.
Cute VS Cheem
Research from Florida State University shows that even the stuff you love to read or watch suggests a whole constellation of character traits – for instance if you like light-hearted videos (cat in a watermelon, dog in a Halloween suit, or amazing animal photobombs) you’re more likely to be optimistic, spontaneous, playful and humorous.
If on the other hand inspirational and moving media is more your thing, you’re more likely to be self-reflective, in tune with your emotions, to enjoy intellectual activities (like puzzles), and to be looking for meaning in life.
Me, My Selfie and I
Selfies are some of the most common images you can find on the internet, but recent studies have cast a cloud by finding that people who post selfies on social media are more likely to display “the dark triad” of personality traits: narcissism (extreme self-centeredness), Machiavellianism (manipulation of others) and psychopathy (acting impulsively without regard for others’ feelings). In addition, the more often people changed their profile pictures, the more likely they were to report narcissistic traits.
Narcissus, Machiavelli and Psycho
Still, as there is both healthy narcissism (that can help you pull ahead at work) and unhealthy narcissism (that can hurt relationships), selfies don’t necessarily equal selfish (obviously).
In the internet age we’re familiar with information overload and privacy concerns. Will this new research bring us online services that adjust to better serve our personality preferences? Or will for instance, employers refer to our online “dossiers” before offering us a job? Only time will tell.
So while some may welcome FB and algorithms filtering what you see, tuning information to your tastes, others will be rightly worried that it’s a step in a very intrusive, AI direction – namely trying to read your mind via your social media habits. Either way, like it or not, the future is here so be prepare to be understood a little better than you intended through your clicks, pics, and posts.
By Vincent Tan
