Is it true that to know a person in the truest sense, you need to take a look at their likes/dislikes?

Can you elucidate? Likes/dislikes seems like a fairly shallow level of knowing to me. Things like how they communicate, what they feel, what they believe in, where they find humor are much more indicative of intimacy to me.

To be a conscious being is to make choices, and although some choices may be arbitrary, most reflect a preference for one course of action over others. To have any understanding at all of a person implicitly requires that you know something about what the person likes and dislikes. To go through @jannbb’s examples, your feelings depend on likes and dislikes You choose how you communicate and what you believe over other alternatives. Where you find humor depends at least in part on what things you like and dislike.

All that will tell you is what they like and dislike.

It will not tell you if they are compassionate, or kind, or mean, or surly, or secretive or manipulative. It won’t tell you if they’re smart or dedicated, or gregarious, or selfish or one-track-minded. It will only tell you if they like sweets, or beer, or video games,or “being a player” or green Jello, and only if they happened to mention those things.

It won’t tell if you are compatible with the other person.

If a person is compassionate, or kind, or mean, or surly, or secretive or manipulative it is because the person likes being that way. The person has made a choice in each case, A person cannot necessarily choose to be smarter than someone else, but the person’s choices, hence preferences, reflect the person’s comparative knowledge in different areas. Who you are is what you do, and what you do is a choice based on what you like doing, If you do not know what a person likes or dislikes then you do not know anything about the person.