Media Coverage & Outreach
I am happy to speak to the media and to take other opportunities to disseminate my research to the public about the use of social media data in marketing and business. Click here for my contact details.
2019
I was interviewed by Portuguese national newspaper Publico
I spoke at Pint of Science in Cambridge at the event Did I decide this? How social media influences our lives. As part of the event, artist Roxana De Rond drew the two awesome illustrations below on the theme of Digital Portraits. google recommended.jpg)
I spoke at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence public lecture on the methodology and ethics of targeting
2018
I did an interview on Big Data Big Opportunities for the Institute of Directors Digital Academy.
This guy did a great summary of three of my research papers:
In March 2018 the Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal blew up. No academics at the Psychometrics Centre were involved with the company. However we were asked to comment in various news articles given our expertise in using computational methods to study human behaviour. Here are a few:
The Big Data genie is out of the bottle.
(Guardian) How Cambridge Analytica turned Facebook 'likes' into a lucrative political tool
The researchers, Michal Kosinski, David Stillwell and Thore Graepel, saw the dystopian potential of the study and raised privacy concerns. At the time Facebook 'likes' were public by default.
'The predictability of individual attributes from digital records of behaviour may have considerable negative implications, because it can easily be applied to large numbers of people without their individual consent and without them noticing,' they said.
(Wired) The man who saw the dangers of Cambridge Analytica years ago
Rust wanted the school to intervene, arguing Kogan's work put the university at risk of 'considerable media attention, almost entirely adverse.'
'Their intention is to extend this to the entire US population and use it within an election campaign,' Rust wrote of Kogan and his client, a little-known political consulting firm that went on to be called Cambridge Analytica. He predicted 'I simply can't see this one going away.'
(FT) Cambridge academics fought man at centre of Facebook furore
Members of the Cambridge Psychometrics Centre [...] raised questions about Mr Kogan's alleged use of university research
New Scientist profiled me in a piece called I exposed how online profiling leaves us open to mass persuasion [ PDF Copy ]
I did an interview for a short melodrama documentary called 'Mind Reading Algorithms are Stealing our Democracy!' [ Watch ]
2017
I was on a panel at Hub.Berlin called Running Data-Based Campaigns - How to Win Elections in Europe. [ Watch Video ]
I spoke at a Cambridge University Science and Policy Exchange (CUSPE) event called Data Science and Democracy - Fake News, Fake Realities?
Chrome extension Data Selfie uses our ApplyMagicSauce personality prediction engine to power its insights into what your data says about you.
I was interviewed for an article on whether opposites attract.
The Inquiry show on the BBC World Service interviewed me as part of a piece called 'How Powerful is Facebook's Algorithm?'. [Listen]
The New York Review of Books talks about our big data psychology research and its links to Kahneman's studies of irrational behaviour, and governments' use of behavioural nudging.
I was quoted in a BBC.co.uk article about Big Data in Research
My research on personality similarity between couples and friends was covered by Psych Central and iNews.
My research on links between profanity and honesty was covered in various media including the Mail Online and some TV News
Read about our research on measuring intelligence from a profile picture on Cambridge News
2016
My article in The Lancet Psychiatry on how Facebook data could be used to understand mental health risks was covered by various newspapers including The Sun.
I published an article in The Conversation on how Facebook use is related to personality and how it could be used by companies.
When Admiral Car Insurance planned to use Facebook data to set new driver's insurance premiums, I spoke to Five Live and was quoted by the BBC.
I was one of the characters depicted in the play Privacy, which played at the New York Public Theater and featured Daniel Radcliffe.
I was quoted by New Scientist in an article about machines assessing personality from profile pictures.
I was quoted by NOS.nl in an article about Facebook's new emotional reaction emoticons and how they could be used for marketing.
My research on how 'Money can buy you happiness if spending fits your personality' was covered in news articles by The Telegraph, The Independent, The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, CNBC and others. I also interviewed for ITV News.
2015
I spoke to Cambridge TV about the use of Big Data by businesses to predict consumers' behaviour.
Cambridge Judge Business School wrote an article, 'Why Facebook knows you better than your mum.'
The Social Shot was created, a mobile bartending robot that mixes individualised drinks based on personality profiles computed through our ApplyMagicSauce tool
I wrote an article for the Huffington Post called, 'Companies Should Use Data Transparently.'
I spoke with my colleagues from the Psychometrics Centre at Cambridge's Festival of Ideas on 'Artificial 'un-intelligence': the future we do not want may already be here.'
ApplyMagicSauce, a prediction engine based on my research, was covered in many newspapers such as The Wall St Journal, The Telegraph, The Washington Post, The Independent, and Mail Online embedded it on its website.
I was interviewed by Lily Ames for CBC Radio's Spark for a segment called 'The algorithm that knows you better than your friends.'
Rush Limbaugh disagrees with my research on his radio show.
An academic article I co-authored, 'Computer-based personality judgments are more accurate than those made by humans' got a lot of press coverage on the BBC, Financial Times, Daily Telegraph, Fortune, Forbes, New York Times, and others. I interviewed on 10 radio channels: BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC World Business Report, BBC Radio Scotland, BBC World Newsday, ABC Radio in Australia, RTE1 with Marty Morrissey, BNR Dutch Radio, BBC Radio Berkshire, BBC Radio Cambridge, The Naked Scientists. Altmetric named the article the 22nd most discussed academic article in 2015.
2014
I gave a TEDx talk at Warwick University called: Online advertising is creepy; it doesn't have to be.
I was profiled as one of the top 30 thinkers under 30 by Pacific Standard Magazine.
I was one of the characters depicted in Privacy, a theatre production at the Donmar Warehouse by James Graham (try and guess which person is playing me in the picture below).
2013
I was quoted in the Philadelphia Inquirer article called Bumper stickers reveal a bumper crop of identity.
An article I co-authored, 'Personality, Gender, and Age in the Language of Social Media: The Open-Vocabulary Approach.' got coverage in The Daily Mail, Time Magazine, Gawker, MIT Technology Review, Wired and Huffington Post.
I was interviewed for a series called 'Privacy Under Pressure' on BBC Radio 4.
I was quoted in the Observer article called Social Media: the next generation of upstart apps gunning for Facebook.
I was quoted in the Daily Mail article about mis-selling by Energy Companies.
I was a panelist on the Guardian Careers Matching your career aspirations to the jobs market: live chat.
An article I co-authored, 'Private traits and attributes are predictable from digital records of human behavior', published in PNAS, got a lot of press coverage, on the BBC and in all major newspapers. I also interviewed about the results on CNN and on various radio stations.
2012
Mirror, a digital exhibit I created for the National Media Museum in collaboration with creative agency Saint Y&R, was mentioned on various news sources including Design Week, ZDNet, Page Magazine, and The Guardian.
I wrote a blog post for New Media and Marketing called, Neuromarketing? Just ask me what you want to know.
2011
I was interviewed on BBC Radio 4 about myPersonality for the 'You and Yours' programme. A recording is available here.
LikeAudience, a project I co-founded, was mentioned on various news sources including Times Higher Education.
