Associated Press
by WARNER TODD HUSTON19 Jan 201528
Researchers wondering who knows people better, their friends or Facebook, found that Facebook came out on top. Using the information on a subject’s Facebook page, new software proved itself better able to judge someone’s personality than close friends and family members could.
Researchers at the University of Cambridge and Stanford University pitted friends and family against an algorithm to find out which was better at determining a subject’s personality. The friends filled out a survey while the program computed the subject’s Facebook “likes.”
The researchers rated subjects on openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
They found that, in most cases, the algorithm was better able to predict a person’s personality traits than close friends were able to do.
