Do you ever wonder how you come across on social media to others? What do your photos, posts, likes and comments say about your personality?
ApplyMagicSauce.Com, a free personality prediction site created by the University of Cambridge’s Psychometrics Center, claims to “accurately predict psychological traits from digital footprints of human behavior”. I was curious to see how the site works and if my social media profile is an accurate reflection of who I am, so I gave it a try.
How it works. When you connect Apply Magic Sauce to your Facebook or Twitter profile, it will go through your photos, posts, likes and comments to determine your personality profile. I chose to just have my Facebook account evaluated since I’m most active on this account in both a personal and professional context compared to Twitter.
What you’ll learn. On a sliding scale, the site will evaluate your level of openness, how you manage life challenges, your level of extraversion, how well you get along with others and how satisfied you are with your life. It will even predict your political affiliation, gender preference, education and religion.
The level of openness, for example, distinguishes creative and imaginative people from more down-to-earth, conventional-minded people. You might rank high in openness, low or somewhere in the middle. But it doesn’t just rank, the site also attempts to interpret the data. Here’s how the algorithm interpreted my openness profile:
“Your digital footprint suggests that you are intellectually curious and appreciative of what you consider beautiful, no matter what others think. You might say that your imagination is vivid and makes you more creative than many others.”
You’ll also learn your digital age—what your digital footprint suggests about your age. Mine suggests that I’m 36, which is a few years younger than I am in real life.
What it means. Most of us know that our social media profiles aren’t separate from ourselves. They’re often extensions of our real life–or at the very least, a slice of our reality. Besides being a fascinating and speedy personality assessment, the beauty of this tool is it can help you figure out what messages you’re sending out to the world about your personality and if you’re coming across in a way that feels genuine to you.
What does your social media profile say about you? Are you happy with the results? Do you feel they are accurate?
