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person2014–present

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

Disciplines:
economics
behavioral economics
social science
artificial intelligence/data science

Summary

American data scientist and former Google economist who pioneered the use of aggregate search data as a window into genuine human behavior — revealing that what people search in private diverges dramatically from what they report in surveys.

Core Contribution

Demonstrated that Google search data constitutes a massive, honest dataset of human desires, fears, and behaviors — capturing what people actually think rather than what they say in surveys — producing findings about racism, sexuality, and mental health that survey data systematically conceals.

Key Spikes & Highlights

  • Search as Confession Booth (argues that people tell Google things they tell nobody else — making aggregate search data the most honest social science dataset ever created, revealing the gap between public opinion and private reality)

Notable Works & Achievements

Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are

Don't Trust Your Gut

Historical Influences

Steven Levitt Richard Thaler Nate Silver

Intellectual Lineage

Behavioral Economics Digital Social Science Data Science

Contemporaries & Peers

Nate Silver Tyler VigenDavid Epstein

Minds Influenced

Digital social science researchModern Wisdom data-driven content

Intellectual Posterity

'Big data as social science' approachSearch data as honest signal

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Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

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