A system and method is disclosed for profiling subjects and objects based on subjects' responses to various objects for purposes of determining and presenting the objects most likely to generate the most positive response from each visitor. Object ratings, such as aesthetic response, preference, interest, or relevancy, are explicitly submitted by subjects or derived implicitly from visitor interactions with the objects. Objects include movies, books, songs, commercial products, news articles, advertisements or any other type of content or physical item. A profiling engine processes the ratings information and generates compact profiles of each subject and object based on the similarities and differences in affinities between the group of subjects and the group of objects. A recommendation engine then generates recommendations to a subject based on similarity between the subject and object profiles. The recommendation engine can also match subjects to other subjects and objects to other objects. The recommendation engine can also predict affinity across object catalogs and across time. Additionally, the object profiles can be clustered to create behavioral object categories. The system has application in personalization, behavioral targeting, Internet retailing and interactive radio, to name but a few applications.