Dataclysm: Who We Are (When We Think No One's Looking)

By Christian Rudder

Categories: Computers & Technology, Politics & Social Sciences

Christian Rudder, a co-founder of the dating site OkCupid, uses data from millions of online users to show how people really behave. Drawing on dating sites, Twitter, Google searches and other sources, he examines attraction, race, beauty, anger, self-presentation and how people describe themselves. Rudder argues that large-scale data can reveal truths that surveys and lab studies miss, and also considers the privacy questions it raises.

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• Shane Parrish: “A look at how the way we interact online uncovers general truths that you can only find looking at large-scale data. “Even at the person-to-person level,” the author writes, “to be universally liked is to be relatively ignored. To be disliked by some is to be loved all the more by others.”