title: Computer-based personality judgments are more accurate than those made by humans.
abstract: Judging others' personalities is an essential skill in successful social living, as personality is a key driver behind people's interactions, behaviors, and emotions. Although accurate personality judgments stem from social-cognitive skills, developments in machine learning show that computer models can also make valid judgments. This study compares the accuracy of human and computer-based personality judgments, using a sample of 86,220 volunteers who completed a 100-item personality questionnaire. We show that (i) computer predictions based on a generic digital footprint (Facebook Likes) are more accurate (r = 0.56) than those made by the participants' Facebook friends using a personality questionnaire (r = 0.49); (ii) computer models show higher interjudge agreement; and (iii) computer personality judgments have higher external validity when predicting life outcomes such as substance use, political attitudes, and physical health; for some outcomes, they even outperform the self-rated personality scores. Computers outpacing humans in personality judgment presents significant opportunities and challenges in the areas of psychological assessment, marketing, and privacy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, United Kingdom; and yw341@cam.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Wu
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Youyou
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305.
authors.forename: Michal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kosinski
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, United Kingdom; and.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Stillwell
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D061108:Social Media; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: artificial intelligence; big data; computational social science; personality judgment; social media