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“We’ve modeled every personality of every voter in the United States”

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I had been talking to Alexander Nix, the CEO of the data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica, for only a few minutes before he noticed my leopard-print shoes, and complimented them.

“I’ll put it in your personality file,” Nix joked.

“Does this mean you can already predict my personality?” I asked warily.

“Oh, yes,” Nix said, brushing imaginary dust off his slacks. “We’ve modeled every personality of every voter in the United States.”

If one were to try to imagine the person who claims to know every single American personality, one would probably not think of Nix, an Eton-educated Englishman in a tweed coat who speaks in fluid, grammatically correct paragraphs of his company’s microtargeting strategy. But presidential candidates from Sen. Ted Cruz to Ben Carson are turning to Nix’s massive database and algorithm so they can reach voters likely to support them with specific messages tailored not to their age, race or gender — but to their fundamental natures.

Go read the rest.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:02 am

Comments

“To error is Human,
To really foul things up requires a Computer!!”

Comment by WhoKnew Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:09 am
I wish AFSCME would have used this before they picked Hillary. I bet Hillary loves it though. It’s probably why the only thing that pops up for me from Hillary is from AFSCME. What’s hilarious is that the comments are FILLED with anti-Hillary comments from the rank and file.

Comment by Honeybear Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:10 am
Brave new world.

Comment by State Engineer Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:11 am
Micro-pandering at its finest?

Great read.

Comment by Formerly Known As... Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:12 am
Didn’t anyone read my book?
Sincerely,
G. Orwell

Comment by Bulldog58 Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:14 am
From the piece;

===We have rooms of PhDs,” he said. “Rooms and rooms and rooms of them. Like, dozens and dozens and dozens of physicists and cosmologists and astrophysicists, psychologists and experimental psychologists.” Cambridge Analytica, which is based in Manhattan, has about 50 employees, and primarily works on political campaigns===

Ugh.

===The young company persuaded hundreds of thousands of Americans to take a 120-question test that measures the “big five” personality traits. These traits — extroversion, openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness and neuroticism —===

Couldn’t they have saved time and asked;

“Which is your favorite ‘Friends’ character?”

To the Post,

It sounds like a big sell to “all” this information that’s “exciting”, but the only thing that may be revolutionary is the packaging of the premise…

…ask a whole lotta questions, score it, break it into 5 groups, run a cookie-cutter Ad for each group… Overcharge for the pretty bow attached to the recycled package.

Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:15 am
Ben Carson needs a lot more than this to reach people. The only ones I’ve seen supporting him are flat earthers so steeped in religion they think all science is bunk and refutwd by a single old book.

Comment by Me too Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:18 am
There was a thorough and serious debate on the concerns associated with police use of automated license plate readers in Springfield this past April. This article shows yet again that our real concern should be with the private aggregation of personal data. The fact that this is almost completely unregulated should be deeply concerning for all of us. How many political careers could we purposely derail if we all had access to everyone’s 5000 data points? How much money could we make requiring people to pay to have that file deleted? I can think of dozens of terrible things one could do with that data. There desperately needs to besome sort of checks and balances framework implemented

Comment by Lobo Y Olla Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:23 am
Honeybear, make no mistake there is a republican running against a democrat. They’re just doing it in the Democratic primary. The folks in that other primary look nothing like the republicans of old. It seems to be a contest as to who can make the most outrageous statements and smack talk the other candidates. If you want Trump to win, you’re voting for America to go the way Illinois has. Ben Carson think Jesus was an archangel and the earth is only six thousand years old.

End rant. Drops mic

Comment by Me too Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:23 am
I don’t believe in magic.

I’ll believe in the value of the data he is using to micro-target when I see it’s results. I think it would be difficult to micro-target one issue or a handful of issues exclusively due to other paid and earned media covering other narratives and issues.

For example, I am one of those scientists that agrees with Carson’s interpretation of the Egyptian pyramids, but I don’t enjoy his vague tax plan. Sending me information about pyramids isn’t going to cause me to forget about his tax proposal.

Comment by Anon Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:24 am
“… you are listening to a machine! Do the world a favor and don’t act like one.”

Comment by Norseman Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:26 am
OW,

===The young company persuaded hundreds of thousands of Americans to take a 120-question test that measures the “big five” personality traits.===

When he says he has rooms of Ph.D.s it sounds like that they might be conducting unethical scientific research without having the full consent of their test subjects.

Comment by Anon Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:27 am
Such companies have been making such claims since the 1080s. Hubris and salesmanship.

The trick of course is to link personality profiles to a very specific behavior, actually voting for someone on the day(s) prescribed.

Comment by walker Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:34 am
You’re joking about the pyramids. You have to be. They are tombs. They don’t have enough empty space to store grain not to mention you’d have to dig it out. And why all the rock slabs sealing them off. Those were designed to never be opened. God I hope you are joking.

Comment by Me too Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:40 am
- Anon -

“Dr. Peter Venkmam” type research?

Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:44 am
Meant to type “1980s” above

(”1080s” might have worked on the hubris, but there weren’t a lot of voters around)

Comment by walker Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:45 am
Contorting science to fit a biblical story is not science, and you are no scientist. His evidence is the seven years of plenty. The pyrimis were built over 85 years. Also, sealing the chamber’s is evidence they weren’t to be disturbed, much like concrete burial vaults we use today to make grave robbing difficult. There were fortunes in there with the mummified Pharaohs. The seals were designed to keep everyone out… Forever. That’s why there were sets of three.

Comment by Me too Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:47 am
Scary. Inevitable. What’s lost is how message development used to help build a platform for governing. There used to be a foundation and a connection between a candidate’s message and what they do as Governor, President etc.

If you tell me exactly what I want to hear I have no idea what you’re actually going to do.

Comment by siriusly Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:50 am
This stuff has already been in use. The last presidential election was so targeted that certain voters on a block would receive as many as six political pieces per month versus their neighbor that got none. They already know the profile of independent and non-entrenched voters.

A friend works in the cable TV industry. Those set top boxes provides lots of information that can then be cross tabbed to your buying decisions (via Amazon and Google), your financial position (via your credit report), your political preferences (via donations to charitable and political causes) and your voting patterns.

As a comparison, Nielsen ratings are derived by sampling 15,000 American homes each week. The set top boxes (for one company) samples 1.2 million homes every day. Per my friend, Nielsen is not reflective of what shows are really popular.

The particular company has helped candidates on both sides of the aisle to target their message very specifically. They can tell you what shows are most popular among white, single females, age 25-35 that are unaffiliated with any particular party.

Comment by Downstate Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:52 am
We the voters need the “personality file” from Nix’s massive database and algorithm on all of the candidates running for state and federal offices. I wonder if Nix collects such info on all of the candidates themselves. Would such information be shared with the public? The public needs to make informed decisions on who the “real” person is inside the talking heads!

Comment by Mama Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:52 am
Hello… Facebook does sampling quizzes several times a day everyday (facebook does not do this for fun). I wouldn’t be surprised if Nix gets his information from Facebook. NO doubt Facebook has modeled every personality of every voter in the United States with their permission. This is why social media is free!

Comment by Mama Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 10:08 am
==“We’ve modeled every personality of every voter in the United States.”==

Not in any kind of useful way, you haven’t.

150 million (or whatever) profiles isn’t anymore useful to a political campaign than a list of 150 million addresses.

Comment by Arsenal Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 10:10 am
All that data and the best they can serve up is Trump and troupe? One would think these folks would take the data and find the person with the most appeal and then spring them on the nation. Problem is the candidate most likeable would not be what the data gurus/dark money PACS/ Wall Street hustlers want.

Comment by Anonin' Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 10:16 am
Does rooms full of PHD’s sound like binders full of women to anyone else? Thank for the link to Yahoo Politics which would have missed without
your all seeing eye.

Comment by Illinoisvoter Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 10:19 am
@Me too
End rant. Drops mic
Do us all a favor and honor that.

Comment by VanillaMan Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 10:22 am
It is insulting to have someone claim that a candidate’s appeal is based upon some kind of computer database. This is a democracy and whatever reason you choose to vote for a specific candidate is fine.

Winning elections means including people, not denigrating them. Know-it-alls are appealing to some voters, but don’t insult those of us who aren’t persuaded by their presentational brilliance. Outsiders are appealing to some voters, but don’t insult the voters who find outsiders appealing.

Glad you think that your candidate is the magic we need to elect on Election Day. But don’t insult everyone else who disagrees. You need every vote to win. So try being nice to every voter.

There is no “best” way of voting. There are no PhD-filled rooms capable of determining how everyone votes. There are no marionette strings on an electorate.

Just respect people enough to listen to why they believe what they do and then perhaps they will listen to you in return.

No computers necessary.

Comment by VanillaMan Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 10:37 am
Vman, that was my stated objective. No need to get snippy.

Comment by Me too Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 10:56 am
It just took a few minutes

Comment by Me too Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 10:58 am
Lots of Big Brothers are watching us. I doubt this is the only firm doing this. Just like the customized ads one gets after looking for an item on a website. I ordered a pair of long underwear for cold days at football games. Now I get scads of ads for same product. Good Grief!!

Comment by Nearly Normal Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 11:08 am
They can collect all the data they want to on me. I use multiple emails and different spelling variations on my USPS name and address. Over the various times I’ve moved, I’ve had both Democrat and GOP committeemen register me to vote, and I’ve gone down to City Hall and done it myself. I contribute to both liberal and conservative causes; it just depends on the issue. Creating confusing data is the new privacy.

I don’t answer phone calls from anyone I don’t personally know, I throw away all the junk mail I get including political ads, and I delete all the junk emails I receive that manage to make it through multiple SPAM filters. So they might think they know me … but they are going to have a hard time reaching me.

Comment by RNUG Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 11:29 am
For anyone interested in a deep dive into this topic, I highly recommend reading The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns by Sasha Issenberg. Fascinating stuff, whether you love it or hate it. This type of profiling isn’t going away. The Obama presidential campaigns used these strategies extensively and very effectively.

Comment by Don't Worry, Be Happy Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 12:48 pm
=Lots of Big Brothers are watching us…Just like the customized ads one gets after looking for an item on a website=

Just like the spam I keep getting addressed to my CapFax nickname, that I use nowhere else!

Comment by James Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 3:09 pm
===addressed to my CapFax nickname===

That ain’t me. Except for a few weeks during an experiment, I don’t even use cookies here.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 3:12 pm
It’s OK, Rich. I can delete the spam. I can’t live without Cap Fax.

Comment by James Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 3:15 pm
== so they can reach voters likely to support them with specific messages tailored not to their age, race or gender — but to their fundamental natures. ==

So they can Taylor their messages to the most common types to get elected?

Comment by sal-says Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 3:34 pm