The Economist on using phrenology for hiring and lending decisions: "Some might argue that face-based analysis is more meritocratic" […] "For people without access to credit, that could be a blessing"
“Some are saying the color of your skin can help determine whether or not you can make your mortgage payments! For those with bad credit, it could be a blessing.”
Some might argue that face-based analysis is more meritocratic
The "some":
that word is doing LOTS of heavy lifting
We may have to start making excuses for the lack of terror.
Great idea dr mengele.
You present the worst ideas possible but attach them to Approved Brand and a leading blurb and people will immediately regard your racism science with sincerity. Really demonstrates how these monstrously bad ideas got wind in the first place.
I think this is just kicking the can as those brands reputation is made up too. For example Economist had monstrously bad ideas from the start.
IMAGINE APPEARING for a job interview and, without saying a single word, being . told that you are not getting the role because your face didn't fit. You would assume discrimination, and might even contemplate litigation. But what if bias was not the reason? What if your face gave genuinely useful clues about your probable performance at work? That question is at the heart of a recent research
So, shit that already happens but now we get to ‘corroborate’ institutionalized bigotry with AI.
Alright who sent a pair of calipers to The Economist?
Oh yes headline, because doing both the phrenology app and a credit background check is impossible. Just too expensive! There is just no way both would be run as a matter of course!
They really think everyone but them is absolute rubes. And we keep proving them right by not stopping them.
We've been doing credit checks for years, that's boring. This way we get to apply AI to an old discredited pseudo-science and pretend that it makes sense now. That's FUN, and we get to use it as an excuse to fire a bunch of people and make more profit. Everybody wins!
Flipping a coin to decide on a hiring decision is also "fair" and "meritocratic". It was the essay artisanal intelligence iirc which argued (a bit) against meritocracy and tbh I can see it. It's kind of a capitalist delusion, it means only the most deserving, well, deserve anything.
Now I'm curious how that kind of thing worked in, like, USSR or how it tends to go in modern China. Like sort of a "to each according to their contribution." Like if merit has a different connotation in a society where people are largely taken care of on a basic level, even if they aren't the "most meritous."
Merit as a way of determining who is qualified for higher positions seems sensible to me in a vacuum, but when we start getting into things like "higher position pays significantly more and has more societal privileges", then it's not just about expertise being placed where it belongs, it's saying that the experts are inherently deserving of more benefits in society. And in a stratified society, what determines who goes on to become an expert can be manipulated through barriers like education and social connections. Kind of like how IQ is a measurement of how someone has been educated, rather than a measurement of inherent "intelligence."
It's also that the most 'capable' person for a job has more often than not had privileges that made them capable. College costs money and not just in tuition but also in travel fees (if you have to go to another campus for a course), textbooks, and the "cost of opportunity" of not integrating the workforce yet too, which means your parents need to be able to support you for the years you'll be in college.
It's no surprise that social mobility doesn't exist in capitalism and children of wealthy/ier parents will themselves find high-paying jobs. This comic is old but illustrates it, https://digitalsynopsis.com/inspiration/privileged-kids-on-a-plate-pencilsword-toby-morris/, this is basic sociology that even liberals recognize. One thing it doesn't touch on that artisanal intelligence did is that the promise of meritocracy makes one feel like they have to grind to make it out of the race while not realizing that they were never going to cross the finish line. And 'the grind' often means working for unlivable wages and accepting undignified work.
Oh no not my wholesome hecking self help industry!
Don't people that identify as incel also use head shape as being a critical part of being successful ?
Yes. head shape and drawing green lines on pictures to see if the person is standing weird. If they stand weird, they are a cuck. It's all very scientific.
When I read articles like these and the factory fire in Turkey, it's so annoying to realize humans refuse to learn from past lessons.
Humans learn from their mistakes all tge time but porky benefits from workers suffering
It feels like different classes learn very different lessons.
using phrenology unironically in 2025
what's next? using alchemy to create the needed rare earths to defeat china? "that's a great idea, hohenheim!"