Nine years ago, before Cambridge Analytica existed, I caught wind of a research project at Cambridge involving the online measurement of the ‘big five’ personality dimensions. These are usually listed by the acronym OCEAN or CANOE: Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Openness and Extraversion. I made a note to go to Cambridge to learn more but, being low on conscientiousness, I never got around to it.
Perhaps I dodged a bullet by not getting involved. When people say ‘It’s the early bird that catches the worm’, I always reply, ‘Yes, but what about the early worm?’
Besides, does personality alone predict behaviour? Perhaps not as much as Cambridge Analytica promised. True, had Donald Trump done less or worse digital advertising, he might have lost. But that’s not to prove psychographic data was decisive. Trump had a smaller budget, after all.
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