Big Data through the Prism of Psychology

Dr David Stillwell, Cambridge Judge Business School

Who do you reckon knows you best? Your friends? Your children? Work colleagues?

Turns out it’s none of these. It’s not even your mum. Because even she doesn’t know all your little ways quite as well as… Facebook. It’s true. Every time you click on that “Like” button, you add more data to a system that can predict your behaviour more reliably than anyone you know.

In 2007 David Stillwell created the myPersonality app, which collected data from six million people by enabling them to take psychological questionnaires and get feedback on their results. We predict personality using digital records of behaviour and machine learning methods, and show that the machine is as accurate at predicting your psychology as your spouse. We then test the predictions in real-world personalised marketing studies, and show that personality targeted and tailored communication increases key metrics such as clicks and purchases. Could digital records one day replace self-report measures of personality, and what are the opportunities for organisations?

Speaker bio

Since the early success of myPersonality and its resulting database, the influence of David’s work has expanded considerably, so that today its impact ranges from targeted online advertising, psychometric adaptive test development, ipsative techniques in test design, the real-time analysis of online digital footprints, behavioural prediction and state-of-the-art school examinations.

Prior to joining the School, Dr Stillwell was Deputy Director of the University of Cambridge’s Psychometrics Centre, and led the Computational Behavioural Science Unit. In 2014 he was named one of Pacific Standard‘s “Top 30 Thinkers under 30”.

Agenda

18:30-19:00 Arrival and registration
19:00-20:00 Business briefing
20:00-21:00 Networking reception

Fee

£20 per person.

Audience

Open to all.

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