The Microtargeting Manipulation Machine

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• Almog Simchon (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)
• Wednesday 19 February 2025, 15:00-16:00
• Online: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_MDIzZDBmNDEtNTZlNC00MzFkLWEzNWEtODBmZmI5NWE0NzJh%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2249a50445-bdfa-4b79-ade3-547b4f3986e9%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%2215d66985-4ebf-4bf2-a70f-da9a8a459e44%22%7d.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Yara Kyrychenko.

In this talk, I examine the use of psychological microtargeting, which uses inferred personality traits from online behavior to customize manipulative messages. I begin by highlighting the opaque nature of such targeting and my approach to reverse-engineer these algorithms to detect and potentially alert users to targeted ads (Simchon et al., 2023). Next, I show that microtargeted political ads, even those generated by AI, are markedly more effective than non-microtargeted ones. This underscores both the persuasive power of AI-driven microtargeting and the ethical issues it raises due to its potential for large-scale use (Simchon et al., 2024). Finally, I explore the effectiveness of warning signals against these targeted ads and find that despite the implementation of such interventions, the persuasive power of targeted messages persists, raising urgent needs for robust regulatory responses (Carrella, Simchon, et al., 2025).

This talk is part of the Social Psychology Seminar Series (SPSS) series.

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