Skip to content

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

Author 'Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are'

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz has used data from the internet, particularly Google searches, to get new insights into the human psyche.  A book summarizing his research, Everybody Lies, was published in May 2017 by HarperCollins.

Seth has used Google searches to measure racism, self-induced abortion, depression, child abuse, hateful mobs, the science of humor, sexual preference, anxiety, son preference, and sexual insecurity, among many other topics.  

He worked for one-and-a-half years as a data scientist at Google and is currently a contributing op-ed writer for the New York Times. He is designing and teaching a course about his research at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he will be a visiting lecturer.

Seth received his BA in philosophy, Phi Beta Kappa, from Stanford, and his PhD in economics from Harvard. In high school, he wrote obituaries for the local newspaper, the Bergen Record, and was a juggler in theatrical shows. He now lives in Brooklyn and is a passionate fan of the Mets, Knicks, Jets, Stanford football, and Leonard Cohen. For more info, head to sethsd.com.