Everybody Lies by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

[OnDoutside]

Just heard him being interviewed on Ari Melber's show, The Beat. Most interesting, especially his discussion about the what Google searches tell us about the 2016 GE. Apparently there were huge amount of racist searches (jokes/memes about African Americans etc) even in areas that were thought NOT to be racist. He also spoke about the amount of searches for Abortion information in Middle America, which are uniformly anti-abortion.

I found this Google Talk he gave in June, which may be of interest.

Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are

How much sex do people really have?


•How many Americans are actually racist?


•What should you say on a first date if you want a second?


•Is America experiencing a hidden back-alley abortion crisis?


•Where is the best place to raise kids?


•Can you game the stock market?


•Do parents treat sons differently from daughters?


•How many men are gay?


•Do violent movies increase violent crime?


•How many people actually read the books they buy?


In this groundbreaking work, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, a Harvard-trained economist, former Google data scientist, and New York Times writer, argues that much of what we thought about people has been dead wrong. The reason? People lie, to friends, lovers, doctors, surveys—and themselves.

However, we no longer need to rely on what people tell us. New data from the internet—the traces of information that billions of people leave on Google, social media, dating, and even pornography sites—finally reveals the truth. By analyzing this digital goldmine, we can now learn what people really think, what they really want, and what they really do. Sometimes the new data will make you laugh out loud. Sometimes the new data will shock you. Sometimes the new data will deeply disturb you. But, always, this new data will make you think.

Everybody Lies combines the informed analysis of Nate Silver’s The Signal and the Noise, the storytelling of Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, and the wit and fun of Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner’s Freakonomics in a book that will change the way you view the world. There is almost no limit to what can be learned about human nature from Big Data—provided, that is, you ask the right questions.