Study: Facebook Likes Can Be Used to Determine Intelligence, Sexuality

 

If you like thunderstorms, The Colbert Report or curly fries on Facebook, you’re a genius. If you like Sephora, Harley-Davidson or the country-western band chick Antebellum, you’re non.

That might go without saying, tho the brainiacs at the University of Cambridge psychometrics Center and Microsoft Research Cambridge have the data to prove it – and a lot of other topics about you, too. They analyzed the Likes of 58,466 volunteers and were able to shape with surprisingly uplifted accuracy a range of mortalalized information that some Facebook users may not have do normal, including their sexuality, where they worship, how they’ll vote in the next election and what their IQ is.

Simply by delving into volunteers’ Likes, the researchers could determine in 95 percent of cases whether a individual was Caucasian or Afri sens American and in 88 percent of cases whether the person was heterosexual or homosexual. They could determine whether the person is Christian or Islamic 82 percent of the time.

The researchers expound Facebook Likes as “a generic class of digital infix that could be used to extract sensitive information.” Volunteers used the myPersonality Facebook app to wipe their Likes, which were fed into algorithms to arrive at the results. The data were supported by information from volunteer profiles and personality tests.

Of course some of these Likes argon a no-brainer. passion “ universe Gay” is at to the lowest degree a decent indicator of one’s sexuality. Liking Barack Obama means there’s a good occur you’re voting Democratic next time around. This is not exactly rocket science. But some Likes appeared to have home in connection to personal attributes. Sure, curly fries are delicious, but is Liking them the best indicator that you have a high IQ? Also, one of the Likes that helped identify heterosexual men was “Being Confused After Waking Up from Naps.” Is that really a trait only straight men are struck with?

While the results can be seen as hilarious for anyone that’s not a Harley-Davidson rider (I kid), the privacy implications are alarming. Facebook Likes are public by default. Information that Facebook users intend to be private can be made public either accidentally or intentionally by an advertiser, political group, or someone with luxuriant math skills and a grudge simply by circle a user’s Likes.

But it’s not still Facebook. Researchers said personal information also can be gleamed from search browsing histories, search queries and purchase histories.

The best thing to remember is anything that happens online is far from private. And even if you’re extra careful, your expression is all that’s needed to determine who you are.

 

Materials taken from WIRED