MessageToEagle.com - It might be a good idea to re-examine your list of friends on Facebook because there could be some dangerous individuals you would rather want to avoid.

There are without doubt many psychopaths on Facebook and other social media. The question is - how do we spot them?

A recent study conducted by researchers from Sahlgrenska Academy and Lund University in Sweden suggests that Facebook status updates can reveal a range of personality traits, including if someone has psychopathic tendencies.

"We looked at people's Facebook status updates and analyzed whether there was a relationship between the texts and people's personality traits," Lund University psychology professor Sverker Sikström said.

"The status analyses could indicate which Facebook users demonstrated psychopathic and narcissistic personality traits in the personality tests," Danilo García, a researcher at the Centre for Ethics, Law and Mental Health at Sahlgrenska Academy, said in a statement.

He added that those with a psychopathic personality posted "negatively charged or odd formulations more often", including entries about prostitutes, decapitation, pornography and butchers.

"Positive energy in others can be rejuvenative.

By analyzing more than 300 American Facebook updates using a questionnaire that tests extroverted, neurotic, psychopathic, narcissistic and Machiavellian personality traits, researchers designed an algorithm that can be used to analyze a person through its status lines.

The algorithm measured the significance of words.

"That was an interesting result, that the method only predicted these dark traits, but not the big five," he said, referring to the five broad personality traits of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

According to the Swedish newspaper the Local, the study, entitled the Dark Side of Facebook and published in the scientific journal Personality and Individual Differences, also found how many Facebook friends users have or how often they update their status can also provide clues about the dark sides of their personalities.

"Facebook is about connecting people, but in so doing it has created a challenge of increasing competition in the market for social interaction," said Sikström.

"The competition for attention could actually end up getting people to reveal more of their dark side."

There are many psychopaths using Facebook and other social media.

He explained, however, that Facebook users need not worry that Facebook friends who post odd status updates are indeed psychopaths.

"Even if you show psychopathic personality traits on Facebook, that doesn't automatically mean you are a psychopath," he said

Sikström added that the method must be adjusted before it can be applied to users who write in Swedish or other languages, but that theoretically it could be applied "in any language".

Nor will shifting from Facebook to Twitter or other social media sites won't help hide clues about users' personality traits, as the algorithm has been used on "all sorts of texts", García told the TT news agency.

And for users anxious about learning how to craft "analysis-resistant" status updates, the researchers offered up some advice: be open and use the word "I".

"Using the word 'I' indicates a certain humility. It also indicates a certain type of honesty," García said.

Sikström chimed in with a more direct tip: "try to be normal, and don't brag too much".

PSYCHOPATHS ON FECEBOOK