Facebook’s “like” button is one of the social network’s most popular features—easily allowing users to applaud everything from favorite bands to political candidates to a friend’s weekend plans. However, by pressing the like button, you may be telling the world more than you know. Researchers examined the likes of more than 58,000 Facebook users through the network’s free MyPersonality app. As they combed through the data, they discovered they could pretty accurately gauge a person’s intelligence, political persuasions, religion, sexual orientation and scads of other traits by what these users said they liked. Some of these extrapolations just make sense. Christians would be more prone to like Bible-oriented pages, for instance. Researchers discovered those who said they liked science tended to have a higher intelligence than the typical Facebook user. Liking curly fries also was linked to intelligence, while liking Sephora makeup more likely indicates a lower IQ. While it’s probably not too surprising that researchers discovered that male fans of the musical Wicked were more likely to be gay, it’s less obvious why heterosexual males were far more likely to like “being confused after waking from naps.” (Time)

Paul Asay has covered religion for The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Beliefnet.com and The (Colorado Springs) Gazette. He writes about culture for Plugged In and wrote the Batman book God on the Streets of Gotham (Tyndale). He lives in Colorado Springs with wife, Wendy, and two children. Follow him on Twitter.