tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3116442395849122822.post8468097408661412812..comments2024-03-12T14:31:50.264-07:00Comments on Bits and Pieces: Unsurprising NSA story of the weekHarry Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17088418333536732728noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3116442395849122822.post-30985502096664465852014-06-03T17:29:31.192-07:002014-06-03T17:29:31.192-07:00NSA/Google (etc) are automating, commodifying, and...NSA/Google (etc) are automating, commodifying, and globalizing a remarkable computational capacity that humans have long been known to possess:<br /><br />---------<br /><b>Half a Minute: <br />Predicting Teacher Evaluations <br />From Thin Slices of Nonverbal Behavior <br />and Physical Attractiveness</b><br />Nalini Ambady and Robert Rosenthal (1993)<br /><br />The accuracy of strangers' consensual judgments of personality based on "thin slices" of targets' nonverbal behavior were examined in relation to an ecologically valid criterion variable.<br /><br />Consensual judgments of college teachers' molar nonverbal behavior based on very brief (under 30 seconds) silent video clips significantly predicted global end-of-semester student evaluations of teachers.<br /><br />The findings are surprising and provocative. They suggest, first, that our consensual intuitive judgments might be unexpectedly accurate, and second, that we communicate — unwittingly — a great deal of information about ourselves. <br /><br />Not only do we possess the remarkable ability to form impressions of others, as Asch (1946) suggested, but, perhaps more remarkably, the impressions that we form can be quite accurate.<br />---------<br /><br /><b>A Modest Proposition</b> Any <i>one</i> university can improve the quality of its entering class — while simultaneously cutting admissions costs and reducing faculty work-load — by requiring <i>solely</i> the submission of a picture … grades, personal essays, letters of recommendation, and even names not required … on the grounds that supplemental information (including names) can be data-mined starting from the picture, such that reasonably accurate predictors of student value to the institution (including post-graduation donation potential) can be distilled automatically, quickly, and cheaply.<br /><br />As <b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a88Z7YOh_us" rel="nofollow">Weyland-Yutani market-analyst Carter Burke</a></b> puts it:<br /><br />---------<br />This is clearly an important market-optimizing capability we're dealing with and I don't think that you or I, or <em>anybody,</em> has the right to arbitrarily exclude it.<br />---------<br /><br />After all, how can any globalized corporate enterprise — including universities — responsibly and competitively refrain from market-optimizing practices that are feasible, effective, and well-grounded in cognitive science?John Sidleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16286860374431298556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3116442395849122822.post-69675885653010215502014-06-02T00:36:19.979-07:002014-06-02T00:36:19.979-07:00It's time to buy stock in the manufacturers of...It's time to buy stock in the manufacturers of false mustaches and such.Alastihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13953712927557028668noreply@blogger.com