Facebook posts can reveal if you are a 'psychopath'

Facebook posts can be used to predict whether a user has a range of ‘dark’ personality traits, Swedish researchers have revealed.

Researchers at Sweden’s Sahlgrenska Academy and Lund University analysed Facebook status updates by 300 Americans, to measure the significance of words and tested the users for a number of personality traits from extrovert to psychopathic or neurotic.

Psychology professor and researcher Sverker Sikstrom said that people with ‘dark’ personality traits tended to post more negatively charged or odd formulations, including entries about prostitutes, decapitation, pornography and butchers, news.com.au reports.

However, those Facebook users with friends posting about gore and sex needn’t necessarily worry because Sikstrom explained that even if the user shows such traits doesn’t automatically means that they are psychopath, the report added.