What you "like" on Facebook is a strong predictor of personality type. If you like the cartoon The Oatmeal (pictured), you are far more likely to have a personality that is less cooperative or sympathetic and more competitive or antagonistic.
Are you a shy person with a snarky sense of humor who secretly craves hugs? You might be able to conceal that from your friends, but not from your computer. A new study of Facebook data shows that machines are now better at sussing out our true personalities than even our closest acquaintances.
The idea for the study came together last year when psychologist Youyou Wu and computer scientist Michal Kosinski, then both at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, watched Her, a 2013 science fiction film in which a man falls in love with his computer operating system. "By analyzing his digital records, his computer can understand and respond to his thoughts and needs much better than other humans," Wu says, "including his long-term girlfriend and closest friends." Wu and Kosinski wondered: Is that possible in real life?
Read more here: http://news.sciencemag.org/brain-behavior/2015/01/your-computer-knows-you-better-your-friends-do