The internet knows you all too well

• Autores: Douglas Heaven
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3168, 2018, págs. 42-43
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • David Stillwell fidgets with his empty takeaway cup as we talk. Sitting in this quiet cafeteria at the University of Cambridge, the ongoing firestorm of US politics feels a million miles away. But with Donald Trump's surprise victory in the 2016 US presidential election, the fire found its way to him, thrusting the young researcher into the spotlight. It started in summer 2007. On a whim -- having just finished a psychology degree at the University of Nottingham, UK -- Stillwell made a Facebook app called myPersonality. It let people take a test that describes personality types according to the "Big Five" traits, which include degrees of agreeableness, conscientiousness and extroversion. In 2013, Stillwell, Michal Kosinski and colleague Thore Graepel dropped the bombshell that machine-learning techniques made it possible to accurately predict someone's personality type simply from their Facebook likes. Just nine likes is enough to predict your personality traits as well as a colleague could