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"
"Merit"
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Werit
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Wreit
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Wɦiet
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White
The term meritocracy never was meant to be taken seriously in the first place.
Political-fiction author: In my book I invented meritocracy as a cautionary tale.
The fucking Labour Party: At long last, we have created meritocracy from the classic novel Don't Create The Meritocracy
Apparently the word was used (also derisively) two years prior to the novel I assume you're referring to.
(I looked briefly and failed to find a non-paywalled copy of the May 1956 Socialist Commentary for more context than the quote on that page.)
I don't believe this, next you'll be telling me it's impossible to pull oneself up by the bootstraps
what if there was an app that determined someone's social value based on a highly complex model that only needed to look at their skin tone? would the periodical that repeatedly dismissed the movement to abolish slavery as too radical be....
We so badly need another round of denazification. Maybe a couple dozen or so, while we're at it
As long as there are Nazis to de, we need rounds to de them
Here's where I keep my denazification rounds
calipers, digital
Even better, it's freaking AI!
So Mr Guenzel and his co-authors used an algorithm to analyse the pictures of 96,000 MBA graduates, and extract what they call the “Photo Big Five”—as they rename the Big Five personality traits of agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism and openness.
The researchers were like, “Hey you know that WEIRD bias problem in psychology and sociology research? What if, instead of trying to negate it, we maximized it?”
MBA graduates
lol they wanted to see if they could caliper for “good at job” and they picked fucking MBAs lmao
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5089827
they don't have their own big five photos 😥
Oh boy, time for another round of Economists Try To Do Math:
R Squared of <2 fucking percent. The whole model explains 2% of the variation in income. 2%; the traits alone account for only 0.3%. Literally only one of the "Big five" traits was even statistically significant! This is a nothingburger! I would tell an undergrad nice effort but maybe ask a less stupid question next time.
Who the fuck was dumb enough to publish this?
Guenzel, Marius and Kogan, Shimon and Niessner, Marina and Shue, Kelly, AI Personality Extraction from Faces: Labor Market Implications (January 09, 2025). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5089827 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5089827
Oh, so no one? The academic equivalent of self-publishing? The economist sure is going for the hard-hitting research. Anyone who was stupid enough to put their name on this thing deserves to be tarred and feathered.
Those coauthors are from "well regarded" business schools too.
Some competitive MBA programs want you to send in a photo. It's literally "Hot or Not." So this kind of bullshit from a business school does not surprise me.
.... that's embarrassing.
But it helped with my confidence if this is what passes for science
new method to analyze personality traits
look inside
scientific racism
Your gullibility is expected for one of your brainpan configuration
Because God fucking forbid these lazy bastards even INTERVIEW now.
I’m sick of being lectured on hard work by people who consider me unemployable because they just assume I am.
Once again, fuck the Economist.
Fuck all economists
Economics is the one field I am proudly anti-intellectual about. Fuck the “economic experts”, smug out of touch elites.
PhD in fart huffing
They're intellectuals in the same way L Ron Hubbard was an intellectual, fucking sky palace-dwelling priests of the Hungry God
Economics and phrenology actually seems like a perfect match made in hell
For fuck sakes. I assumed you had rediscovered something from a hundred years ago.
Yeah, no, i am sorry to report that this is an actual thing on yale dot edu in 2025:
yale and reinventing phrenology, name a more iconic duo
Being told I'm too ugly for a job, luv 2 live in Amerikkka
Uggo basic income
unironically
There really needs to get to a point where it’s pointed out how rich people are such absolute manbabies.
It’s embarrassing I have to be a basement dweller because I didn’t become the bestest bestie to some spoiled rich brat and he won’t hire me as a token of our friendship.
Literally being subject to the adult equivalent of “neener neener! I’m having a birthday party and you’re not invited!” but my life depends on getting invited to such ‘birthday parties’.
Maybe the algorithm has a sense of humor and will re-Habsburg the bourgeoisie in a few generations.
“We will finally have meritocracy if only we made the world even MORE luck-based! Come on bro, one more luck-based patch.”
We literally already hide most jobs behind ‘networking’ and you think MORE pedigree is the solution to the shit state of the world? Unironically fuck yourself.
It’s the joke of throwing out half the applicants because “I don’t want unlucky people working for me” but fully unironic.
You may allege bias, but what if the shape of your skull can actually predict your propensity towards savagery?
I'm going to serious post this for a moment:
Pretty privilege is a thing. I think just as much as the racial (and other) biases this could complicate the pretty privilege problem. I'm a short, bald, older dude who is a 4 out of 10 physically on a good day. I know I've been turned down for promotions and shit simply because other people are way more attractive than me and frankly people just want to be around attractive people. I have always made less than my peers. It is what it is. My fear is that these stupid fucking metrics are going to go full fucking incel mode and start measuring negative canthal tilt and shit like that to really lock that in. This hearkens back to the argument on social media that there is a demand by wealthy couples for "ugly nannies" and my argument was for pretty people to sit the fuck out on this one. Let the ugly women have this one fucking thing. Anyways, that's my rant as an ugly dude I can literally only see this as another huge hit for my fellow uggos.
1950s people: "Damn people in 2025 are gonna have flying cars and laser guns and shit"
2025:
How many times have they used this line?
Oh wait I forgot it's the entire ideology
We trained our hiring AI to be racist and judge people by their looks. We care about merit very much
Technically this is physiognomy
Our future is Stupid Gattaca
stupid *pretend gattaca i only saw the movie but at least they had real gene tech
This pseudo science needs to be stopped ASAP. You can't even test these things in controlled environments, not in any reasonable way. These people are just looking for arbitrary patterns in things and trying to make sense of them.
It's like if I wrote a bunch of random letters on a napkin and someone desperately tried to find a reason behind them when I didn't intend there to be any reason.
The Bell Curve and its consequences.
She changed her name for an amazing reason
It's the time for AI/Woke