How much do someones 'likes' reflect their personality?

I dont care what superficial things people like, I go by who they choose as friends and mates. I look for people who surround themselves with individuals because pack animals bore me, and I look for people who value good character.

their stated likes?
their observed likes?

What interests me more is the discrepancy between stated and observed likes. Gives clues as to the kind of impression people are hoping to make, and who they're hoping to make it on.

I don't really think that any sort of meaningful evaluation about the "sort" of person they are can be made based simply on someone's taste in the areas of arts/entertainment.

Seems like a very shallow way of looking at other people.

I'd be in the shitter over this one Hawkeye. I can see maintaining different types of relationships with different types of people. Someone I may have known in the past may wind up making bad choices... I may not ask their advice...hahaha...but I may not dump them altogether, either. I have some close associates who I have really big disagreements with (unspoken ...they don't even know), but if there's something about them that appeals to me, I keep them on. I used to jettison everyone that I didn't see eye to eye with. So, I think in my case, the people I associate with may not be an indicator of who I am at all.

Having Charactor does not mean making no mistakes, it has little to do with mistakes....it has to do with not wanting to hurt people, the ability and willingness to be honest, the abilty an willingness to work for something, stuff like that.

So, Miss LashLee, what kinda music do you like? I've got to decide about you.

I like the Pixies, the Toadies, Neutral Milk Hotel, people screaming real loud and breaking ****. Will you be my friend?

I used to be a "character" person, too...but lately it seems like it's easy to fake. So, I've dumped good people who are transparently imperfect, and hung on to devious people, who are good at posing... So, I tagged out of the character-assessing industry. But, i know what you mean, sweety.

you are right, something has happened in the last decade or so. Too many people are play acting now and are good at it.

I am showing my age.

I feel ya, sweety!

Just because we like the same music does not mean we will click on all levels.

I'm wanting to surround myself with realness now. Simplicity. No drama. No wine, food, fashion or car snobs. Having money doesn't appeal to me either.

I just don't have the energy anymore. If it doesn't come naturally, it isn't worth it.

In my capacity as a neoclassical armchair economist, I judge people by their revealed preference: I look at the things they try to get, and what they give up to get them. For example, if we had a detailed account of how you earn your money and how you spend it, that would paint a pretty accurate picture of what kind of person you are.

By contrast, I don't give much weight to what people say they like. For example, if you were to examine which posts on A2K I "thumb up", you wouldn't learn much about the kind of person I am online. Most of my voting is "defensive". I vote posts up because they defend an unpopular viewpoint and have been voted down for it. I don't want the expression of these viewpoints chilled, so I try to counterbalance any appearance of community disapproval with up-votes. Looking at my voting on A2K, then, would say little about my A2K personality. As I said, judging people for what they say they like is a bad idea. You need to look at the choices people make when they cost them something.

Like a sincerity and good eye contact, huh? When you can fake those, you got it made.

HELL YES!

Damn straight. I'm a master of the innocent-puppy look, and it always works. Sometimes I can even defuse ehBeth when she gives me The Eye.

I find that it's not so much what specifically they like that influences how interesting or likeable I find someone, as much as how many things they like, and how open they seem to liking - is 'like' their default mode or is automatic dislike (because it's not cool or acceptable) their default mode.
This tells me a lot about a person.

I find that I'm not really attracted to spending time with people who have very rigid and narrowly defined likes and dislikes because a lot of times I've found that those people just say they don't like something because they think they won't like it and in fact have never tried it.

I tend to be more drawn to people who like a lot of different things- and those likes can be diffuse and seemingly arbitrary or contradictory and all over the map - that just makes them more interesting to me.

I don't judge people on any likes or tastes for anything except meanness, pettiness and cruelty. If someone seems to have a taste for that - I'm not interested in getting to know anything further about them or their likes.