Ipseology: A New Science of the Self

Event Description

Abstract: Astronomers slowly made sense of the cosmos by following the stars night after night. I suggest we examine human identity in a similar way. Let's observe the words individuals use to describe themselves day after day. In this presentation, I will introduce ipseology - a new approach to studying human selves. Ipseology is the systematic, empirical study of ipseity: selfhood, individuality and the elements of identity. The primary idea is that we can learn a lot about people from their self-authored self-descriptions - especially if we follow their revisions over time. I will discuss results from sampling millions of social media bios over more than a decade and present new approaches for observation in the Post-API age.

Bio: Dr. Jason Jeffrey Jones is a computational social scientist whose expertise includes online experiments, social networks, high-throughput text analysis and machine learning. He is interested in humans' perceptions of themselves and the developing role of artificial intelligence in society.

Dr. Jones is the director of CSSERG (pronounced sea surge): the Computational Social Science of Emerging Realities Group. CSSERG is a team of scholars committed to cross-disciplinary collaboration, united by common computational methodologies and always with eyes on the near future. CSSERG has studied the effectiveness of virtual reality in evoking empathy, the dynamics of gender stereotypes in language over decades and temporal trends in personally expressed identity.

This seminar will take place in person and online (zoom link below):

Join Zoom Meeting
https://stonybrook.zoom.us/j/93686609778?pwd=KdHVyIbU3ymML6hTchXsm6JLYKLSru.1

Meeting ID: 936 8660 9778
Passcode: 638699

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