The 'Facebook' logo is reflected in a young Indian woman's sunglasses as she browses on a tablet in Bangalore on May 15, 2012. World's popular and leading social networking company Facebook Inc., founded in a Harvard dorm room by Mark Zuckerberg whose current value exceeds 100 billion USD, will be making an initial public offering (IPO) which is slated to be Silicon Valley's biggest-ever. AFP PHOTO/Manjunath KIRAN (Photo credit should read Manjunath Kiran/AFP/GettyImages) Stanford University and University of Cambridge researchers say that analysis of a person’s Facebook likes creates an amazingly accurate assessment of one’s personality – more accurate than assessments done by family and friends. (credit: Manjunath Kiran/AFP/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (CBS DC) — Stanford University and University of Cambridge researchers say that analysis of a person’s Facebook likes creates an amazingly accurate assessment of one’s personality – more accurate than assessments done by family and friends.

The research aimed to test how well a computer system could pick out major personality markers and “traits that human beings are especially good at predicting” through personal interaction, said study co-lead author Michal Kosinski of Stanford. The study compared the “important social-cognitive activity” humans use to judge others to that of computer models’ assessment of an individual.

What the researchers found is that humans’ social keenness was a less effective judge of personality than that of artificial intelligence software.

“Computers’ judgments of people’s personalities based on their digital footprints are more accurate and valid than judgments made by their close others or acquaintances (friends, family, spouse, colleagues, etc.),” write the researchers. “Our findings highlight that people’s personalities can be predicted automatically and without involving human social-cognitive skills.”

For the study, the researchers collected self-made personality markers from 86,220 volunteers who completed a 100-item survey via the app myPersonality, which measures the “Big Five” personality traits: extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and agreeableness.

One of primary methods of judging accuracy was the correlation of self-other agreement, or, the extent in which external judgments of someone agree with that person’s self-rating. Facebook friends and family members of the self-reporting participants were then asked to fill out a 10-item questionnaire about them while a computer model also ran through personality judgments of the individuals based solely on their Facebook likes: pages, articles, musicians, movies, etc.

The computers scored better than family and friends.

Based on only 10 likes, the computer program outperformed a person’s work colleagues, and after scanning a sample of 70 likes, the computer did better than friends or roommates.

After viewing 150 likes, the computer knew more about a person than their own family members. And although spouses stood out as being the toughest to beat, 300 likes was enough for the computer to match how well they knew their own partners.

The researchers linked a series of particular traits such as liking meditation and David Bowie correlated with being artistic and liberal. Liking Lil’ Wayne and a Jersey Shore cast member connected the traits of being outgoing and extraverted. And liking Wikipedia paralleled people who were reserved and shy.

“We were surprised to find that actually computers are beating us at something we excel at,” Kosinski told The Washington Post.

The computers were beaten by the humans on judging one criteria: life satisfaction.

“Computer-based personality judgments are more accurate than those made by humans” was published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal.

— Benjamin Fearnow