Recently, I have been conducting some research on what items surrounding a person say about that person’s personality and then I was delighted to see a fascinating study on a related issue addressing people’s likes from Facebook. In essence, the study research what predictive information can be gleened from a person’s “like” of something.
The researchers only evaluated items that had “likes” from more than 100 people. The researchers used data from over 58,000 people as subjects. The results were fascinating.
For example, likes of Sarah Palin, Indiana Jones, Swimming, and Pride and Prejudice were most predictive of the personality trait that the person was satisfied with life. On the other hand, if the person liked “Gorillaz” “Hawthorne Heights” or Stewie Griffin, they were likely to be disatisfied. In addition, if a person liked “Foursquare” or “Kaplan University”, they were more likely to be conscientious and well organized. On the other hand, if they liked “Wes Anderson,” “Anime,” or “Join if Ur Fat,” then the person was more likely to be spontaneous.
Another way of looking at the likes would be in conjuction with each other. If a person liked “The Godfather,” “Pride and Prejudice,” “Plato,” and “Cheerleading,” that person would most likely be a high IQ, satisfied, liberal/artistic and extraverted person.
The ramifications of this research are vast. This could be used in jury selection, in interrogation, and job interviews to say the least.
If you would like to know your own personality, you can test it at http://www.youarewhatyoulike.com
By Steven G. Mehta
