Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
“Most people think that racism is high in the South – in Louisiana or Mississippi. If you think of our country’s history, we usually divide racism as a North versus South division. But what the Google searches revealed is that many of the places that were highest in racist google searches include upstate New York and industrial Michigan. I would say racism is not North versus South but more likely East versus West.”
“There’s this idea that people turn to jokes when they are sad that doesn’t appear to be true. People are more likely to seek out jokes when they’re happy. So searches are highest for jokes on Friday and Saturday when people are happy. Job searches are higher on sunny days rather than rainy days and joke searches drop during major catastrophes. This totally goes against the gallows humor idea.”
“Our intuition leads a lot to be desired, so any time our intuition is lacking – and that’s pretty much every time – data can be really helpful.”