In their latest book, the University of Toronto’s Ajay Agrawal, Avi Goldfarb, and Joshua Gans argue that the principle role of AI in the coming years will be to lower the cost of making accurate predictions. They believe this will add value to a great many fields, but perhaps one area they haven’t foreseen AI making an impact is in personality predictions.
That is exactly what a new study from the University of South Australia in partnership with the University of Stuttgart, Flinders University and the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Germany claims to be able to do however.
All in the eyes
The research utilizes machine learning to identify the link between our eye movements and our personality. The paper suggests that the way our eyes move reveals whether we are sociable, conscientious or curious, with the system capable of detecting four of the so called Big Five personality traits: neuroticism, extroversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.
Interestingly, the researchers were able to do this despite a relatively small sample of just 42 participants, each of whom was required to perform a range of every day tasks whilst also completing a questionnaire designed to assess their personality. The researchers were able to identify a number of previously under-investigated eye movements that could be connected to certain personality traits. It’s a breakthrough they believe could have important implications for areas such as social robotics.
“There’s certainly the potential for these findings to improve human-machine interactions,” they say. “People are always looking for improved, personalised services. However, today’s robots and computers are not socially aware, so they cannot adapt to non-verbal cues.”
They go on to suggest that their findings could provide a vital bridge between laboratory-based studies that are often tightly controlled, and more natural eye movements found in real-world environments.
“This research has tracked and measured the visual behaviour of people going about their everyday tasks, providing more natural responses than if they were in a lab,” they say. “And thanks to our machine-learning approach, we not only validate the role of personality in explaining eye movement in everyday life, but also reveal new eye movement characteristics as predictors of personality traits.”
