How Well Does Your Computer Know You?

Here at Tristar IT we're passionate about technology and computing and like to keep up to date with all the latest developments from this exciting field. Here we take a look at some rather remarkable new research, which suggests your computer may know you better than you might think.

Whilst you may be able to conceal certain personality traits from your friends and family, you might have a little less luck when it comes to fooling your computer. According to new research, our computers can be better predictors of our personalities than our friends or even family members, pretty scary stuff!

Man Against Machine

This rather remarkable finding is based on a new study from researchers at Cambridge and Stanford University's who pitted man against machine to see which would come out on top, in a battle to make judgements concerning human character and personality.

They found that by analysing Facebook likes, a computer programme was able to predict personality traits more accurately than even our closest friends.

The study involved an impressive 86,220 volunteers who completed a detailed personality questionnaire, in addition to giving the researchers access to their Facebook accounts. The volunteers’ friends and family members were also invited to judge their personality traits using a short personality test.

What You’re Like By ‘Likes’

The results of the study revealed that a computer programme was better able to predict an individual's personality than close friends, based on just 70 Facebook likes. Using only 150 Facebook likes, the computer programme was even able to beat parents and siblings too.

Given that the study found that the average Facebook user has around 227 likes on their profile, the computer had plenty to work with.

Human and Computer Interaction

The team behind the study are hailing their results as an important milestone on the road towards more natural interactions between humans and computers. And The Guardian quotes lead author of the study, Ms Wu You, as stating: “In the future, computers could be able to infer our psychological traits and react accordingly, leading to the emergence of emotionally-intelligent and socially skilled machines."

Unlike humans, computers have a huge memory capacity and are able to make judgements in a systematic way, without being influenced by potential biases, which could give them the edge.

Controlling Digital Footprints

Whilst personality is more complex than the five key traits explored in this study, the results of this research are still rather remarkable and demonstrate the ability of computers to outpace humans, even as tasks where we would be expected to excel.

Interesting as these results may be, they do raise some important concerns with respect to privacy. Recognising this, the authors of this new research are calling for new privacy protection policies, to give users greater control over their digital footprint.

Here at Tristar IT we know computers. We’re a leading provider of IT support in London  and can assist you with a range of computing matters, including issues relating to online security and privacy. For more information about our range of services please don't hesitate to contact us today by giving us a call on 01707 378 453 and a member of our friendly team will be happy to help you with your enquiries.