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Nowadays, the idea that Facebook can influence elections or that social media can affect our mental health, and therefore our behaviour, is not a new concept - if anything I’d argue it is an accepted concept now.
But what does that actually mean? What do we mean when people claim that Facebook and Cambridge Analytica helped elect president Trump? What role did Cambridge Analytica and Facebook actually play here?
There aren’t many people out there that believe that they can be manipulated by an advert on their chosen social media app, but with all the claims about election manipulation, it’s something that is clearly happening. Over this two part blog post, I’m going to break down the methods that can be used to try to manipulate your thought process, behaviours or emotions.
This requires some context before we get into the meat of the topic, so for the first of the two posts, we are going to discuss what the model is to which we are assessed against.
Overview of the OCEAN model
In psychology, ‘Trait Theory’ is an approach to studying human personalities - the idea that human behaviour, thoughts and emotions can be categorised into traits. A common model is the OCEAN model, where each letter stands for a personality trait. This model has been defined by multiple independent researchers, and at the time of writing, is one of the most commonly accepted models of categorising human behaviour (Note: This model only applies to the English speaking community.)
The traits are as follows:
Openness to experiences
Conscientiousness
Extroversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
Each trait has two extremes, and generally people don’t sit on either extreme, but more in the middle, skewing to one side. How much you skew to a side is the deal breaker here. Let’s break down each trait and discuss this further.
Openness to experiences
This trait, as in the name, is about your openness to experiences - do you like trying new things? How about experiences that may make you feel uncomfortable or risky activities? Can you deal with routine?
Individuals who have a high openness to experiences have an appreciation of art, culture and unusual ideas, but can also be seen as unpredictable and risk takers. Those on the extreme end also tend to chase intense euphoric highs (in other words, can be more prone to take drugs that enhance their current state).
On the other end of the spectrum, those who have a low openness to experiences normally like routine and predictability. They are described as pragmatic and data driven - however this can lead to the perception that those with a low openness are close minded.
Conscientiousness
Conscientiousness is the display of self-discipline, or self-regulation. It’s the measure of how people control their impulses, and how they can use this control to achieve things. Think of a bad habit you may have that you want to break - do you have the discipline to break it? Is it normal for you to struggle to break bad habits - or maintain good habits?
Those who have a high conscientiousness prefer things to be planned and have a more controlled approach to things, but they can also be perceived as stubborn or too focussed.
Those with a low conscientiousness are associated with being flexible and spontaneous, giving into their impulses. But those on the extreme end of the spectrum can also be seen as sloppy, lacking reliability or having no real direction of their approach to things.
Extroversion
This one is probably the one people are most familiar with. Extroversion is the energy you get from external activities - such as social events or interacting with people. In other words, how much of an extrovert are you?
Extroverts get energy from interacting with people and are enthusiastic individuals. Those who are extroverts like to talk a lot and assert themselves, and therefore may seem dominant. They enjoy being the centre of attention, but can act first without thinking. Extroverts also don’t like or need much alone time.
Introverts are on the other end of the spectrum. Introverts do not get as much energy from social interactions and situations, and like to keep to themselves. They normally have a small group of people they like to interact with, but still need their space, or alone time, than extroverts.
Introverts are generally seen as quiet, deliberate and less involved in the social world.
One thing to note here is that introverts are usually considered socially awkward. It can be common for introverts to be socially awkward, but that is not because they are introverts. Introverts can be fine socially, they just don’t want to be around people (and I know a few extroverts who are socially awkward!).
Most people are a mixture of both, skewing more to one side. Those who are fifty-fifty between the two are sometimes called ‘Ambiverts’.
Agreeableness
This is a measure of how you react in the instance of disagreement in social situations. Do you try to reach a common consensus and find areas of agreement? Or do you push back and speak your mind, regardless of how many people you upset? If you were in a meeting, and you disagreed with your boss in a meeting when the majority of the people in the meeting agreed with your boss, would you speak up?
As you’d expect, as agreeable individuals look for general consensus, these people value getting along with others, and as a result are seen as considerate, kind, trusting and willing to compromise their interests with others. They have a more optimistic view on life and human nature, and normally have higher quality relationships with people.
People who are not agreeable, are less concerned whether they are liked and what others think, and can be seen as less concerned about others' well being. They are seen as putting self interests above everyone else, sceptical, unfriendly and uncooperative. They can also be seen as challenging or argumentative.
Some argue that to progress in the career ladder, you cannot be an agreeable person and you need to put yourself first, although no studies conclusively prove this. However, there are studies that claim billionaires and other successful people are generally not agreeable people. So believe what you will.
Neuroticism
This is your tendency to experience emotions, generally negative emotions, and how intensely you feel them - or how emotionally stable you are. This is the most interesting one to me personally, as it can change throughout your life and is massively influenced by events in your early years of your life.
Highly neurotic people are emotionally reactive, vulnerable to stress and likely to interpret ordinary situations as threatening. Minor set-backs or frustrations can really affect their moods and negative emotions can persist for a long time - and due to the lack of emotional regulation, they might struggle to think clearly, make decisions and cope effectively with stress. Highly neurotic people tend to have more negative experiences - but this can change depending on events in your life.
On the other end of the spectrum, people who are not neurotic are not easily upset, less emotionally reactive and therefore are seen as calm, emotionally stable and free from persistent negative feelings. However, these individuals also are less likely to experience extreme feelings of happiness, and when experiencing extreme happiness, it is likely to be a temporary state before they return to a neutral mood.
Big Tech categorise everyone into this model
Big Tech has become really good at being able to workout where you sit within these traits with minimal interactions with their platform. I recently wrote about how Spotify can use your music listening habits and how you organise your playlists to work out where you skew with each trait.
This information will be paired with your demographics: where you live, how old you are, your race, sexuality, sex, religion, etc. by which they have a very good mathematically defined model of who you are, what you want out of life, how you feel and why you behave a certain way.
This information may be useful to data brokers (which I have also previously written about), who can buy this data off social media sites, and sell it off to whoever is willing to buy the information.
But once Big Tech, advertisers, or whoever wants to use this manipulation, have this information, what do they do with it? Where does the manipulation part come in? What exactly are they doing?
That’s for my next post, as this one has become long enough as it is.
If you have a better idea than I do, if I’ve missed out anything or you think I am talking absolute rubbish, feel free to reach out either by commenting on the post, or by emailing me on tanvirtalks@substack.com
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