Blog

Do you "like" curly fries on Facebook? You may be a genius.

Date
20 Mar 2013
Author
Brandon
Like icon

Clicking “like” on Facebook is a fairly forgettable act. I like the TV show “The Wire.” I like the musician Leonard Cohen. I like this one shoe company because they were giving away a free pair of boots (I didn’t win).

But one new study found you can actually predict quite a lot about a person based on their Facebook likes.

Psychologists at Cambridge University conducted a study using information from 58,000 U.S. Facebook user volunteers and found they could figure out what your political views are, your race, your sexual orientation … they can even predict with some certainty whether or not your parents divorced.

And the likes they’re using to make these predictions aren’t necessarily obvious.

An example given in the Wall Street Journal was this: The combination of likes for Austin, Texas; Martin Lawrence’s “Big Momma” movies; and the statement “Relationships Should Be Between Two People Not the Whole Universe” were on a list of choices that predicted drug use. And likes for chocolate-chip cookie-dough ice cream and “Sliding on Floors with Your Socks On” are among those that indicate you don’t do drugs.

Liking curly fries is correlated with a high IQ. Spontaneous people like anime. Single folks tend to like “Hunger Games.” People in relationships like Weight Watchers. And with some of those sets of indications, we’re talking about 80-95 percent accuracy.

I have some questions when I think about studies like this:

First: Should we be more careful when we’re online? Thinking about all of this publicly available data is just … creepy. And everyone from the federal government to hackers has access to loads of data every day. It makes me nervous, but I still wonder: It took a team of Cambridge scientists how much time to come up with these predictors? What are the chances that someone is going to dig that hard to figure out how much beer I drank in college? And do I care?

Second: Why are people still targeting me with such crazy Facebook ads? I would think if someone can figure out who I voted for in the last election based on the books I like, these social advertisers might be able to figure out that I have zero interest in either a psychology degree or cloth diapers.

Subscribe to our Newsletter
Don't miss out on our latest news and commentary and white papers, subscribe to our newsletter now!
You may also like
AI robots
Blog

AI in Digital Advertising Is Changing How Brands Buy and Optimize Ads

For years, media buying relied on delayed insights and manual decisions. Teams would launch campaigns, monitor performance, and adjust after the fact. That gap between action and insight often meant wasted spend and missed opportunities.
Travel - airplane
Blog

How Personalized Marketing Drives Guest Retention for Travel and Tourism Brands

Travel brands spend enormous budgets attracting new visitors. Yet many overlook the strategy that drives the highest long term value: guest retention.
website uX
Blog

How to Fix Website UX Mistakes Costing You Sales

Your Website Isn’t the Problem. Your UX Is. Most companies think they have a traffic problem. They invest in paid media. They push content. They drive more visitors to their site and expect conversions to follow. But they don’t. Because traffic was never the issue.
HTC
man sitting on tin foil couch
Momentum built fast. The message connected, engagement climbed, and more consumers started rethinking their choice.
Idahoan Foods
Family in kitchen making potatoes
The campaign quickly gained traction. Traffic surged, engagement climbed, and Idahoan started showing up as a true weeknight dinner hero.