MIT Experiment: Predicting Sexuality Based On Facebook Friends

The Boston Globe:

Using data from the social network Facebook, they made a striking discovery: just by looking at a person's online friends, they could predict whether the person was gay. They did this with a software program that looked at the gender and sexuality of a person's friends and, using statistical analysis, made a prediction.

Read the whole story: The Boston Globe

Comments

[skyslimit]

05:44 PM on 09/23/2009

Good to know our best minds are being put to their best use.

[Balzac]

02:40 AM on 09/23/2009

That's funny. It doesn't concern me at all what some algorithm suggests to the programmer who built it. But it is hilarious for raising the level of anxiety among those who are consternated.

Sometimes I have a nagging suspicion that some guy or another is gay. I don't care if you're gay so long as I'm regarded with anxiety by other men who are not among my old friends. Champagne for my true friends, true pain for my sham friends.

I mind my own business and I expect others to mind their own business as well. Just don't get on my nerves or I'll be just as much a jerk to a gay man as I will to any straight man who gets on my nerves. Kobra Kai.

Anyway, it's important to be dry and crispy with every other dude except for your oldest friends and family members. New friends are generally not friends, just acquaintances. Overt sentimentality is a tell.

[superstition]

04:47 PM on 09/23/2009

What?

[Balzac]

06:06 PM on 09/23/2009

Regarding the topic of the article, I'm saying that if I have more or fewer than average gay Facebook friends or personal acquaintances, it's because I mind my own business. I expect the same.

New York City has more gay men per capita than many other places. I don't discriminate against gay men, but neither am I trying to make new friends.

Also, if someone close to me is in the closet and doesn't want me to know, they should not engage in sentimental outreach to me. In other words, "don't lean on me when you're not strong".

[leftbehind2000]

10:11 PM on 09/22/2009

yet 92% of Iowa facebook users indicated that the gayness of their friend collection did not directly affect them.

[superstition]

08:37 PM on 09/22/2009

I skimmed the article, but at two times it seemed to suggest that being gay is a bad thing that should be kept secret. The problem with the "virtue of the closet" reasoning is that being in the closet reinforces the false notion that being gay is a bad thing that should be kept hidden.

"the simple act of “friending” someone online - might reveal something a person might rather keep hidden."

“It does highlight risks out there.”

“'You can do damage to your reputation with social networking data, and other people can do damage to you.'"

[Balzac]

06:22 PM on 09/23/2009

Yeah, it was a very paranoid article. For all you know, it could have been written by a gay man in the closet who doesn't want to be "outed" by his friend list. Maybe he's just suggesting people may want to keep their friend-list private if they seek to remain "in the closet". That's everyone's prerogative. My friend list remains public because I'm not concerned about someone's conclusion based on statistical prediction.

[hypnotoad72]

01:01 PM on 09/22/2009

And this is important, how? One or more of the students has a personal interest? I'll conduct my own study: People making studies to determine their sexuality proves they themselves are the orientation they are seeking.

And does it matter? Or why might it matter? Apart from knowing who's safe to chat up and everything? :)

[Tpy]

09:04 AM on 09/22/2009

This sounds like boring research. It's essentially just shoving some new numbers through an existing mathematical sausage press. As for the privacy angle, is there any doubt that one is leaking many bits of personal information by maintaining a Facebook account? Actually, isn't that the entire point of having a Facebook account?

I guess if it has the name "MIT" attached to it, it must be legit, right?

More boring, formulaic research doomed to no greater relevance than so much padding on a mediocre student's CV.

[KIVPossum]

04:19 AM on 09/22/2009

I don't have any friends on facebook, in fact don't even have a facebook page.

Does this mean I can't have sex?

[MED1025]

10:26 PM on 09/21/2009

Will they follow up this study with one to see whether astrology or numerology is a better predictor of future economic success?

[natenash]

05:54 PM on 09/21/2009

gay study is gay

[Charity]

05:20 PM on 09/21/2009

did i miss something here? can someone help me out? how did these students get the data to run their software? for instance, my facebook friends list is only available to my friends, and even then i restrict certain people from seeing my list because they like to "friend" any new friend i get. also, when anyone in the world searches for my name (on google for instance), they are unable to see my entire friends list; it is wholly private to the outside world.

so exactly how did MIT conduct this research? did facebook allow them to run the software on anyone they chose, thereby voiding any private settings the user might have?

[Michael Shanley]

07:17 PM on 09/21/2009

It states,in the article, that they used the alumni of MIT during the years 2007-2011 while students or were graduate students. I woul dassume they got permission from these classmates but doesn't say.

[Charity]

08:02 PM on 09/21/2009

so they used two years of alumni (2007 -2009) who allowed them to access their friends list? with permission?

i'm thinking it was done without their permission, per se, by MIT students accessing accounts they were allowed to access based on their "friendship" with the owner of the facebook page. some people keep their pages "open" to their specific network: colleges, work, city, etc.

perhaps this is how it was done - i'm still guessing that it was done without the knowledge of anyone who friends list was accessed - with software, no less.

[Michael Shanley]

04:23 PM on 09/21/2009

This whole anaysis is flawed...it doesn't even consider people who are friends only becasue they play similar games on facebook. I have 344 friends on facebook because of vampire wars. only about 100 are actually friends in the same state. They don't even account for this in their study.... Pretty sad that MIT would conduct a study that doesn't take into consideration these facts.

[sinope]

02:30 PM on 09/21/2009

This is the least surprising thing ever.

[Jimboy17]

01:58 PM on 09/21/2009

Things have really slid at MIT...it's a freaking content analysis, and the results should come as no surprise.

[BabblingBrooks]

01:08 PM on 09/21/2009

I wonder if they could analyze Obama's czars and discern whether Obama is a radical Marxist or not?

[MerrieWay]

01:00 PM on 09/21/2009

Technology, hanging out your personal laundry is Big Brother Peeps at large. So? Grin & bare it. Live a good, full life. You know 'who and 'what' you are. If not, listening to statistics to define you: only confuses, keeps us down (dumbed and numbed) to our own truth. I'm rooting for the freedom to be the essence of humanity's uplifting spirit - without prejudice or malice - with tolerance and peace. Have a MerrieWay day

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