The Talker: Facebook `likes` reveal more than you think
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CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) -
What do the things we "like" on Facebook say about us? A new study is just astonishing.
58,000 Americans allowed researchers at Cambridge University to see their Facebook "likes," along with answering personal questions, and participating in general personality tests. The researchers then analyzed the Facebook "likes" and used the information to figure out which ones actually predict certain personal attributes.
The findings range from the fairly obvious, to the totally bizarre. Their accuracy is said to be high enough for advertisers to know who is a target customer.
In the study, high intelligence was associated with clicking "like" for thunderstorms, Mozart, Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" and curly fries.
Low intelligence was associated with liking "Clark Griswold," Bret Michaels, the cosmetics store Sephora, Lady Antebellum, and the phrase "I love being a mom."
Liking the heavy metal band Slayer and the sports apparel brand Under Armour were associated with being a smoker.
Being a non-drug-user was associated with liking swimming, chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, and the basketball player Pau Gasol. Drug users tended to like Austin, Texas, "Big Momma" movies, and the phrase "relationships should be between two people not the whole universe."
There are also predictions for who's an extrovert, an introvert, and whose parents divorced before he or she was 21-years-old.
Privacy advocates worry about what might be done with these sort of conclusions about our private lives.
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