Facebook Algorithm to Predict a Break Up

Facebook can now make predictions on who you are dating, and if you're about to break up.

A Cornell professor and a senior Facebook engineer have claimed to have developed a Facebook algorithm which can predict who you're dating. The algorithm depends on a new metric called "dispersion," which looks at connections between people who have different sets of friends.

It is the most accurate metric as researchers were able to identify who was dating whom with 60% accuracy, much better than the 2% accuracy they'd get from random guessing.

According to the study, couples were 50% more likely to break up in the next two months if the dispersion algorithm failed to guess that they were dating.

Relatives may also show this same "dispersion" dynamic, the researchers say. Dispersion turned out to be the most overall accurate metric for determining romantic relationships. The researchers used multiple sets of anonymous data, including a large data set from 1.3 mn Facebook users.

In the study, enormous effort were made to use Facebook data into something meaningful for marketers. However, it's easy to see where the algorithm would fail. For example, many Facebook users list fake relationships as a joke, declaring themselves to be "married" or "engaged" to their best friends. The method also assumes that you, all your friends, your spouse, and all your spouse's friends are active on Facebook.