Cambridge Analytica's Capability for Influence: Is Manipulation Merely Big Data, Psychological Profiles and Personalised Ads ?

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorFarina, M.
dc.contributor.authorSemmler, C.
dc.contributor.authorMitchell, L.
dc.contributor.editorDowling, M.-E.
dc.date.issued2025
dc.description.abstractCambridge Analytica claimed to have in-house analytical capabilities for profiling individuals and manipulating their voting behaviour. However, as this chapter shows, this was not the case. The chapter demonstrates that scraping and blending social media and other types of data is not an effective method for capturing the complexity of human personality and persuasion. It also shows that Cambridge Analytica lacked the technical knowledge for influencing elections. Indeed, it did not consider that unvalidated data are poor indicators of people's personalities and that social networks are dynamic and change over time. More importantly, Cambridge Analytica did not use any instruments for measuring the effectiveness of its campaigns. Therefore, the chapter concludes that it did not possess the capability for manipulating elections. The chapter also claims that although changing voting behaviour might be possible, it is not technically doable at this point in time. There are unknown psychological processes and analytic methods yet to be developed for effective mass or indeed targeted influence campaigns. Moreover, the chapter argues that manipulating voting behaviour is not ethical and undermines the legitimacy of liberal democracies.
dc.description.statementofresponsibilityMatteo Farina, Carolyn Semmler, and Lewis Mitchell
dc.identifier.citationDigital (Dis)Information Operations Fooling: the Five Eyes, 2025 / Dowling, M.-E. (ed./s), Ch.4, pp.47-60
dc.identifier.doi10.4324/9781003457947-6
dc.identifier.isbn1032601795
dc.identifier.isbn9781032601793
dc.identifier.orcidFarina, M. [0000-0002-8594-585X]
dc.identifier.orcidSemmler, C. [0000-0001-7912-293X]
dc.identifier.orcidMitchell, L. [0000-0001-8191-1997]
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/2440/147140
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherRoutledge
dc.relation.ispartofseriesRoutledge Studies in Conflict, Security and Technology
dc.rights© 2025 selection and editorial matter, Melissa-Ellen Dowling; individual chapters, the contributors. Chapter 1 of this book is available for free in PDF format as Open Access at www.taylorfrancis.com. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 International license.
dc.source.urihttps://doi.org/10.4324/9781003457947
dc.subjectHistory
dc.titleCambridge Analytica's Capability for Influence: Is Manipulation Merely Big Data, Psychological Profiles and Personalised Ads ?
dc.typeBook chapter
pubs.publication-statusPublished

Files

Collections

Aurora submissions