Ken Steele wrote: "It would seem that the results obtained from such a search using Google autocomplete is an insight into the search history of the person who uses that computer."
and Marie Helweg-Larsen found: "Women shouldn't... -work -be in combat -be cops -vote -got to college." I'm guessing this psychodynamic analysis will be quite a revelation to Marie. :) Rick Dr. Rick Froman, Chair Division of Humanities and Social Sciences Box 3519 x7295 rfro...@jbu.edu http://bit.ly/DrFroman Proverbs 14:15 "A simple man believes anything, but a prudent man gives thought to his steps." -----Original Message----- From: Ken Steele [mailto:steel...@appstate.edu] Sent: Monday, November 04, 2013 7:01 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: Re: [tips] Google autocomplete & psychology One of the issues here is that Google autocomplete is geared to the search history that exists for the computer on which the search is run. So when I enter the word "proper" then the autocomplete for me is to a restaurant in Boone, NC. (The restaurant serves local, Southern-history food to constitute a proper meal. If you think collard greens are a good side dish, and I agree, then this is your place.) It would seem that the results obtained from such a search using Google autocomplete is an insight into the search history of the person who uses that computer. Ken -- --------------------------------------------------------------- Kenneth M. Steele, Ph.D. steel...@appstate.edu Professor Department of Psychology http://www.psych.appstate.edu Appalachian State University Boone, NC 28608 USA --------------------------------------------------------------- On 11/4/2013 5:51 PM, rfro...@jbu.edu wrote: > > > > I think Google autocomplete is fairly unreplicable in many cases. > I don't doubt that putting "women should" into a Google search in > Dubai might turn up those suggestions (the UN ad agency was in > Dubai), but I wasn't able to replicate it here. > > I don't begrudge someone advertising for a good cause to use a > current trend like Google autocomplete to make a dramatic ad that > makes a good point but I don't think it is a sociological IAT (or > even a Rorschach). When I put in "women", mine says: > > women seeking men > > women of faith > > women living well > > women of the bible > > When you put in "women should", it starts to go negative. And > what would you expect? What sentence that starts out saying that > a whole class of humanity "should" or "shouldn't" do anything is > going to end well? > > There was an interesting non-disclaimer disclaimer in the > Guardian article: "The world as seen through the lens of > autocomplete is a weird and not always wonderful place. It's a > place where David Cameron "is a lizard", Obama is "a Muslim", > Putin is a "badass" and Miley Cyrus, predictably, is "still > twerking". But despite the suggestions that have been skewed by a > popular blogpost or meme and are clearly bonkers, there is still > much to be gleaned from them about our deep-seated > discriminations." Really? Much to be gleaned? I doubt it. > > For "psychology is", I got > > psychology is > > psychology is defined as > > psychology is the study of > > psychology is best defined as > > psychology is not a science > > Certainly there are some people who don't believe it is a science > but I don't think 1/4 autocomplete recommendations is very > disheartening. I would think someone was tampering with it if > there was nothing negative at all. > > Rick > > Dr. Rick Froman, Chair > > Division of Humanities and Social Sciences > > Professor of Psychology > > Box 3519 > > John Brown University > > 2000 W. University Siloam Springs, AR 72761 > > rfro...@jbu.edu > > (479) 524-7295 > > http://bit.ly/DrFroman > > "The LORD detests both Type I and Type II errors." Proverbs 17:15 > > -----Original Message----- > From: Christopher Green [mailto:chri...@yorku.ca] > Sent: Monday, November 04, 2013 4:05 PM > To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) > Cc: Ian Davidson > Subject: [tips] Google autocomplete & psychology > > You may have seen, recently, that it has become a kind of > informal method for discovering popular social trends to enter > the beginning of a sentence into a Google search box and see how > the engine completes the expression. The idea is that Google will > come up with the most likely completions based on its "knowledge" > of what people generally intend when they start a search expression. > > This method was used very effectively in an ad campaign by UN > Women a few weeks ago when they entered phrases like "women > should" and "women need to" and got horrible completions like > "stay at home," "be slaves," and "be in the kitchen." Here's a > Guardian article about that experiment. > > http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/22/google-autocomplete-un-women-ad-discrimination-algorithms > > So, I decided to try the same thing with "psychology is". You > should give it whirl. I don't think you'll find the results to be > all that surprising, but they are a bit disheartening nevertheless. > > Regards, > > Chris > > ....... > > Christopher D Green > > Department of Psychology > > York University > > Toronto, ON M6C 1G4 > > chri...@yorku.ca <mailto:chri...@yorku.ca> > > http://www.yorku.ca/christo > > --- > > You are currently subscribed to tips as: rfro...@jbu.edu > <mailto:rfro...@jbu.edu>. > > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13039.37a56d458b5e856d05bcfb3322db5f8a&n=T&l=tips&o=29768 > > or send a blank email to > leave-29768-13039.37a56d458b5e856d05bcfb3322db5...@fsulist.frostburg.edu > <mailto:leave-29768-13039.37a56d458b5e856d05bcfb3322db5...@fsulist.frostburg.edu> > > > --- > > You are currently subscribed to tips as: steel...@appstate.edu > <mailto:steel...@appstate.edu>. > > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13524.94845a3ed9806f1cef14973830dd8c39&n=T&l=tips&o=29772 > > (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line > is broken) > > or send a blank email to > leave-29772-13524.94845a3ed9806f1cef14973830dd8...@fsulist.frostburg.edu > <mailto:leave-29772-13524.94845a3ed9806f1cef14973830dd8...@fsulist.frostburg.edu> > > > --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: rfro...@jbu.edu. 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