this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2025
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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" (lemmy.ml)
submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by cypherpunks@lemmy.ml to c/technology@lemmy.world
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/38830374

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economist article

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrenology

excerpts of economist article:

screenshot of text "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"

[...]

screenshot of text "a shorter one. Some might argue that face-based analysis is more meritocratic than processes which reward, say, educational attainment. Kelly Shue of the Yale School of Management, one of the new paper’s authors, says they are now looking at whether AI facial analysis can give lenders useful clues about a person’s propensity to repay loans. For people without access to credit, that could be a blessing."

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[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Wait a minute, this sounds suspiciously familiar... I think I heard about the psudoscience of a government measuring the size of people's heads to try to find out their ethnicity... somewhere in Rwanda... 🧐

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[–] leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 10 months ago

Me and my hammer would be happy to offer our retrophrenological services to any executives looking to improve their performance and personality (painkillers not included).

[–] xyguy@startrek.website 8 points 10 months ago

Measles, theocratic government, phrenology: everything old is new again.

[–] BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

I'm not sure we're going to make it y'all.

[–] AcidiclyBasicGlitch@sh.itjust.works 7 points 10 months ago

[–] pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 10 months ago

"If he's black, get him out of here"

[–] devolution@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

Bringing back racism and good vibes under "scientific principle."

[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Disturbing. What is the proposed mechanism here? Or is it unknown?

[–] AmbitiousProcess@piefed.social 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

They just use the buzzword "AI", but in reality it's probably going to be a machine learning algorithm.

Take the dataset, split out the groups of people you do/don't want to hire based on whatever criteria, train the model to be more likely to pick faces with characteristics from the "do hire" group, and less likely to pick those from the "don't hire" group.

Then, use it on real people, and it will provide similar outcomes based on faces.

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[–] KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 4 points 10 months ago

Bro has the brainpan of a stagecoach tilter

[–] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

That image reminds me a meme from "Scientific diagrams that look like shitposts". It was titled something like "Mask of Damascus(?)/Triagones(?) - Acquire it (from a prisoner(?)) with a scimitar!"

[–] basiclemmon98@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 10 months ago

Ooh yay, more ways for employer's AI to autoreject people! How fun!

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

https://youtube.com/watch?v=FVvg1CKBE20

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