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posted by cmn32480 on Thursday November 24 2016, @01:34PM   Printer-friendly
from the bring-on-the-flames dept.

Ever wonder why iPhone users often seem to have the same personality, or why you could never understand an Android fan?

UK researchers finally developed a test that could predict what kind of cellphone a user is likely to have, and here are the conclusions:

A comparison of both Android and iPhone users revealed that iPhone users are more likely to be:

        Younger
        More than twice as likely to be women
        More likely to see their phone as a status object
        More extraverted
        Less concerned about owning devices favoured by most people

In contrast, Android users were more likely to be:

        Male
        Older
        More honest
        More agreeable
        Less likely to break rules for personal gain
        Less interested in wealth and status

The full article is paywalled but an abstract is avilable.

Now if only there was a way to separate correlation and causation...

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161121144206.htm


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  • (Score: 2) by tfried on Thursday November 24 2016, @03:04PM

    by tfried (5534) on Thursday November 24 2016, @03:04PM (#432403)

    I know you just meant to be funny, but come on:

    Now if only there was a way to separate correlation and causation...

    Then you would know, whether buying an iPhone will actually make you younger and female?

    More seriously, of course you can (mostly) tell causation from mere correlation - with a more complex study design. A typical design would include at least a baseline measure before subjects get a (new) phone, and then at least one follow-up measure some time later. You may also consider randomly assigning people to a phone (most likely by giving them one for free), to rule out effects of self-selection.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Thursday November 24 2016, @03:52PM

    by Nerdfest (80) on Thursday November 24 2016, @03:52PM (#432426)

    The tendency for younger users is disconcerting for future digital freedom. These are people that are being trained that it's a good thing for an external entity to be in control of what you can do with your device. Combine that with the lock-in that tends to occur because of Apple's penchant for proprietary protocols and connectors and the future could be even more bleak.

    • (Score: 2, Disagree) by HiThere on Thursday November 24 2016, @07:17PM

      by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Thursday November 24 2016, @07:17PM (#432523) Journal

      I'm not sure that's right. If my main use of a computer were games, it wouldn't bother me the MS and Apple have abusive EULAs. Similarly, as long as I don't do anything that's NOT networked on my phone, why should I care that it's proprietary. The network is hacked and recorded anyway. I don't know why the feds don't get themselves public approval by running their copying as a user backup service.

      So phones AREN'T secure, no matter what you do. (Well, you could transmit messages encoded on some non-networked device I suppose, but it had better be removed from the network before you decode it. And that's considering the networked device as insecure, which is proper.) Remember, the net is recorded, and things which are secure today won't be secure in a few years....or might not be. The mathematical proofs of security make assumptions about implementations which have repeatedly been shown to be false. One time pads are probably safe, as long as nobody else has the same table of random numbers.

      What is achievable is *reasonable* security. And Apple isn't going to make it impossible to share your files with non-Apple devices unless they become a LOT more dominant than they are...which they won't do as the "high priced spread".

      --
      Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 24 2016, @04:18PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 24 2016, @04:18PM (#432441)

    Keep in mind that "correlation is not causation" is also the mantra for those who don't understand statistics, but want to sound like they do. Statistics can be subtle, of course, but it seems that a lot of people who are quick to whip out that phrase are also those that wouldn't know their Poisson from a hole in the ground.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 24 2016, @07:17PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 24 2016, @07:17PM (#432522)

    More seriously, of course you can (mostly) tell causation from mere correlation - with a more complex study design.

    But these are the social sciences; scientific rigor isn't their thing. 'Correlation is not causation' is nearly always the appropriate response to a social science study, because they are typically nonsensical and haven't even been replicated yet by the time the media starts reporting on them.

    There really need to be warnings on these types of articles.

    • (Score: 2) by tfried on Thursday November 24 2016, @08:33PM

      by tfried (5534) on Thursday November 24 2016, @08:33PM (#432568)

      Umm, I understand your criticism of the social science in general, but it seems strangely misplaced, when the original article never even implied causation (for all we can take from the abstract).

  • (Score: 2) by Hyperturtle on Thursday November 24 2016, @10:01PM

    by Hyperturtle (2824) on Thursday November 24 2016, @10:01PM (#432620)

    Iphones cause women to be younger and more female? I am so getting my girlfriend a bunch of iphones for christmas!

    I hope it correlates with her libido being what it used to be, too... if not, I can at least count on her being able to talk to herself on them while I go figure out some other scheme...