More Details

Summary:

"There are more digital pieces of data than stars in the universe. This data helps us monitor our planet, decipher our genetic code, and take a deep dive into our psychology. As algorithms become increasingly adept at accessing our minds, they also become more and more powerful at controlling it-enticing us to buy a certain product or vote for a certain political candidate. Some of us say this technological trend is no big deal. Others consider it one of the greatest threats to humanity. But what if the truth is more nuanced and mind-bending than that? In Mindmasters, Columbia Business School professor Sandra Matz offers a fascinating insider perspective on the art and data-driven science of psychological targeting. By relating her own personal story of growing up in a small village-where few aspects of life remain truly private-to her groundbreaking research in computational psychology, Matz reveals how Big Data offers insights into the most intimate aspects of our psyche and how these insights empower external influence over the choices we make. Filled with Ted-Talk-like explanations and real-life examples from Matz's research and consulting work, Mindmasters paints a nuanced picture of the power of psychological targeting. Like nosy neighbors, it can be creepy, manipulative, and downright harmful-with scandals like Cambridge Analytica being merely the tip of the iceberg. Yet, like any tight-knit, supportive village community, it also holds enormous potential to help us live healthier and happier lives-for example, by improving our mental health, encouraging better financial decisions, or enabling us to break out of our echo chambers. With passion and clear-eyed precision, Matz shows us how to manage psychological targeting and redesign the data game in a way that empowers us to take back control and ask more of our personal data. Mindmasters is a riveting look at what our digital footprints reveal about us, how they're being used-for good and for ill-and how we can gain more control and power over the data that define us"-- [Provided by publisher]

Table of Contents:

• Introduction : The digital village
• Data is a window into our psychology. Decoding our psychology
• The identities we craft online
• The digital breadcrumbs of our existence
• You are not yourself when you're hungry
• The bright and dark sides of psychological targeting. Psychological insights in action
• Finding the good
• When things go wrong
• Making our data work for us. We need more than control
• Creating a better data ecosystem
• Coming together
• Epilogue : The moral imperative to shape our future.

Author/Creator:

Matz, Sandra C. , author

Languages:

English

Language Notes:

Item content: English

Main Work:

Mindmasters: the data-driven science of predicting and changing human behavior [by Matz, S.C.]

Other Related Resources:

Print version: Mindmasters [by Matz, S.C.] (Boston, Massachusetts : Harvard Business Review Press, [2025] — ISBN 9781647826314; LCCN 2024023257; OCLC Number 1419864767)

Subjects:

Psychology — Research — Methodology

Psychology — Technological innovations

Technological innovations — Psychological aspects

Human behavior — Research

Data mining — Social aspects

General Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 205-210) and index.
Description based on: Online resource; title from digital title page (ProQuest Ebook Central, viewed on February 11, 2025).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 226 pages) : illustrations

Call Numbers:

BF76.5 .M373 2025eb

ISBNs:

9781647826321 (electronic book)
1647826322 (electronic book)
9781647826314 (hardcover) [Invalid]

Library of Congress Control Numbers:

2024023258

OCLC Numbers:

1454856403