Facebook understands users better than spouse

New research suggests that a computer model is a better judge of an individual’s personality than those closest to them. The judgment is based on an analysis of what people “like” on Facebook, The Financial Times reports.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge and Stanford University admitted the findings may be considered “creepy” by some but said they could also lead to technological advances, such as helping artificially intelligent (AI) machines better understand the emotional needs of their human creators.

In the study released on Monday, researchers analysed thousands of Facebook users, tracking the pages on which they clicked its “like” button, the blue thumbs-up symbol familiar to the social network’s 1.2bn users worldwide. These likes, of anything from company brands to a cat video, are seen by a user’s friends but can often be viewed by anyone else on the internet.


Users on the site gave the scientists access to their Facebook “likes” and completed a personality questionnaire created by psychologists. More than 17,000 volunteers then invited friends and family to judge a user’s psychological traits through a different test. This allowed researchers to compare human judgment to machines, finding that when given enough data the computer model scored higher than siblings, parents and even spouses in understanding the character of a loved one.

The model was able to judge personality more accurately than a work colleague though analysing just 10 Facebook likes, a friend with 70 likes, a family member through 150 likes, and a wife or husband using 300 likes. On average, a Facebook user has 227 likes on their social network profile.