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Who We Are (When We Think No One's Looking)
Crown
September 2014
On Sale: September 9, 2014
304 pages
ISBN: 0385347375
EAN: 9780385347372
Kindle: B00J1IQUX8
Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction
An audacious, irreverent investigation of human behaviorβand a first look at a revolution in the making Our personal data has been used to spy on us, hire and fire us, and sell us stuff we donβt need. In Dataclysm, Christian Rudder uses it to show us who we truly are. For centuries, weβve relied on polling or small-scale lab experiments to study human behavior. Today, a new approach is possible. As we live more of our lives online, researchers can finally observe us directly, in vast numbers, and without filters. Data scientists have become the new demographers. In this daring and original book, Rudder explains how Facebook "likes" can predict, with surprising accuracy, a personβs sexual orientation and even intelligence; how attractive women receive exponentially more interview requests; and why you must have haters to be hot. He charts the rise and fall of Americaβs most reviled word through Google Search and examines the new dynamics of collaborative rage on Twitter. He shows how people express themselves, both privately and publicly. What is the least Asian thing you can say? Do people bathe more in Vermont or New Jersey? What do black women think about Simon & Garfunkel? (Hint: they donβt think about Simon & Garfunkel.) Rudder also traces human migration over time, showing how groups of people move from certain small towns to the same big cities across the globe. And he grapples with the challenge of maintaining privacy in a world where these explorations are possible. Visually arresting and full of wit and insight, Dataclysm is a new way of seeing ourselvesβa brilliant alchemy, in which math is made human and numbers become the narrative of our time.
 Media BuzzPBS News Hour - December 30, 2014
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