CityReads│Everybody Lies: How the Internet Reveals Who We Are

127

Everybody Lies: How the Internet Reveals Who We Are

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz uses big data to reveal previously untapped insights about the human behavior and human psyche.  

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz,2017.Everybody lies: big data, new data, and what the internet can tell us about who we really are, Dey Street Books.

Source: 

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? 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?

If you want to know the answer, please read Everybody lies: big data, new data, and what the internet can tell us about who we really are. I strongly suspect the author gets the title from the American TV show, House. 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 strangers, 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 the end of on average day in the early twenty-first century, human beings searching the internet will amass eight trillion gigabytes of data. This staggering amount of information—unprecedented in history—can tell us a great deal about who we are—the fears, desires, and behaviors that drive us, and the conscious and unconscious decisions we make.

There is a huge advantage of google search. That is, to avoid the social desirability bias. People often lie to surveys. But people are very honest on Google. 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. This new data is like Dr. House of our age, helping us diagnosing the human psyche.

Steven Pinker, a Canadian-born American Cognitive scientist, psychologist, linguist, and popular science author, writes a preface and praises for Everybody Lies. It will be on sale on May 9, 2017. 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.

Google recently released the same anonymous, aggregate data down to the minute. The pattern of the digital life of New Yorkers: Search rates for “weather,” “prayer” and “news” peak before 5:30 a.m. WE search for doctors at 8:20 a.m. and recipes at 4:52 p.m. Late night is a time rich with anxiety, panic and horniness. Porn is most popular between midnight and 2AM.The hours between 2 and 4 a.m. are prime time for big questions: What is the meaning of consciousness? Does free will exist? Is there life on other planets? 

Source:

Drawing on studies and experiments on how we really live and think, Seth demonstrates in fascinating and often funny ways the extent to which all the world is indeed a lab. With conclusions ranging from strange-but-true to thought-provoking to disturbing, he explores the power of this digital truth serum and its deeper potential—revealing biases deeply embedded within us, information we can use to change our culture, and the questions we’re afraid to ask that might be essential to our health—both emotional and physical. All of us are touched by big data everyday, and its influence is multiplying. Everybody Lies challenges us to think differently about how we see it and the world.

Here are some of the research findings from Seth’s website. You can have some flavor of what Everybody Lies is about. Seth has used Google searches to measure racism, self-induced abortion, depression, child abuse, hateful mobs, the science of humor, sexual preference, anxiety, son preference, and sexual insecurity, among many other topics.  

1. What percentage of white voters didn’t vote for Barack Obama because he’s black? 

Seth introduces a new measure of racism in different parts of the United States based on Google searches. He argues that racism cost Obama far more votes than previously realized.

2. Islamophobic google searches and anti-Muslim hate crimes

The author finds that using 2004-2013, weekly data, Google Islamophobic searches can predict anti-Muslim crime.  

Source:https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/13/opinion/sunday/the-rise-of-hate-search.html?_r=0

3.How many gay Americans are there? 

Seth studies 6 datasets, including Facebook profiles and Google searches.  And he finds consistent evidence that roughly 5 percent of American men are gay, with intolerance driving more than half into the closet.

4. Do parents treat sons differently from daughters?

Google searches suggest parents have different concerns for male and female children.  They are more excited by the intellectual potential of their sons.  They are more concerned about the weight and appearance of their daughters.

5. Racism and health

We find a correlation between an area's racism -- as measured by Google searches -- and the black-white mortality gap.

6. Pregnancy around the world

Google searches suggest that pregnant women around the world have similar symptoms and crave similar things.  But they differ in the fears about what they are not allowed to do.

7. The geography of fame

Seth studies the probability of reaching Wikipedia by county of birth for all American Baby Boomers. I find that children of immigrants born in cities or college towns are the most likely to live lives that are deemed notable.

8. Where do NBA players come from?

Contrary to conventional wisdom, that poor socioeconomic status is a major hindrance to reaching the NBA.

9. Political nepotism

The upper echelons of politics have a higher father-son correlation than other fields.

Related CityReads

（Click the title or enter our WeChat menu and reply number ）

CityReads ∣Notes On Cities

"CityReads", a subscription account on WeChat, 

posts our notes on city reads weekly. 

Please follow us by searching "CityReads"  

Or long press the QR code  above