January 28, 2008
Are You What You Read?
Virgil Griffith has a lot of time on his hands. A lot.
Where he finds the time is a mystery: he's a grad student in Computation and Neural Systems (uh huh) at CalTech by day, something that probably keeps him late at the lab while the rest of us are playing Wii. When he's not doing that, Griffith is, like the rest of us these days, fascinated by what gets thrown onto social networking sites, Facebook in particular. Being of a scientific bent, Griffith posed to himself a question:
Ever read a book (required or otherwise) and upon finishing it thought to yourself, "Wow. That was terrible. I totally feel dumber after reading that?" I know I have. Well, like any good scientist, I decided to see how well my personal experience matches reality.Here's how he tried to answer that question:
1. Get a friend of yours to download, using Facebook, the ten most popular books at every college (manually -- as not to violate Facebook's ToS). These ten books are indicative of the overall intellectual milieu of that college.Very interesting, indeed. Griffith's graph, which he refers to tongue-in-cheek as a list of Books That Make You Dumb, reveals some fascinating results. The books listed most frequently as favorites by students on Facebook at schools with the highest average SAT scores are below the jump, as well as the most popular books at some of D.C.'s universities and colleges.2. Download the average SAT/ACT score for students attending every college.
3. Presto! We have a correlation between books and dumbitude (smartitude too)!
Books <=> Colleges <=> Average SAT Scores4. Plot the average SAT of each book, discarding books with too few samples to have a reliable average.
1. Lolita
2. One Hundred Years of Solitude
3. Crime And Punishment
4. Freakonomics
5. Catch-22
6. Atlas Shrugged
7. The Alchemist
8. Cat's Cradle
9. Ender's Game
10. Life of Pi
How do local schools stack up against these selections? Griffith has results for those, too:
Favorite books among Georgetown University students on Facebook:
1. 1984
2. The Great Gatsby
3. Harry Potter (which one? Practically no one on Facebook, according to Griffith's study, specifically says...)
4. To Kill A Mockingbird
5. Pride And Prejudice
6. The Catcher in the Rye
7. Brave New World
8. Freakonomics
9. Crime and Punishment
10. Anna Karenina
Favorite books among George Washington University students on Facebook:
1. Harry Potter
2. The Great Gatsby
3. The Catcher in the Rye
4. 1984
5. To Kill A Mockingbird
6. Pride And Prejudice
7. Angels And Demons
8. The Da Vinci Code
9. The Kite Runner
10. Memoirs Of A Geisha
Favorite books among American University students on Facebook:
1. Harry Potter
2. 1984
3. The Catcher In The Rye
4. Pride And Prejudice
5. Catch-22
6. To Kill A Mockingbird
7. The Great Gatsby
8. The Alchemist
9. The Kite Runner
10. Catch 22 (note the lack of a dash in this entry, meaning that this novel might have been even higher in the standings had some students AU on Facebook puncuated it correctly)
Favorite books among Catholic University students on Facebook:
1. Harry Potter
2. The Catcher In The Rye
3. A Prayer For Owen Meany
4. The Kite Runner
5. Jane Eyre
6. Infinite Jest
7. Harry Potter Series (at least they're specific there at Catholic)
8. The Da Vinci Code
9. Angels And Demons
10. A Million Little Pieces
Favorite books among Howard University students on Facebook:
1. The Coldest Winter Ever
2. The Bible
3. Kindred
4. Things Fall Apart
5. Their Eyes Were Watching God
6. Flyy Girl
7. Slam
8. Left Behind Series
9. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
(Note: Griffith's result list only nine for Howard.)
Favorite books among George Mason University students on Facebook:
1. Harry Potter
2. The Bible
3. The Da Vinci Code
4. The Catcher In The Rye
5. Tuesdays With Morrie
6. To Kill A Mockingbird
7. Pride And Prejudice
8. The Giver
9. The Lord of The Rings
10. The Alchemist
Favorite books among Gallaudet University students on Facebook:
1. The Catcher In The Rye
2. Harry Potter
3. Lori Wick (a favorite author...)
4. The Da Vinci Code
5. A Prayer For Owen Meany
6. "And Megan Cabot Book Ww2 Books"
7. "And Many Other's [sic] That I Can't Think Of At The Top Of My Head"
8. "And Many More Books"
9. Absolute Power
10. A Time To Kill
No doubt Griffith means the results to be tongue in cheek, which is why he's so far had to field a number of questions and remarks since posting his results, reminding those quick-to-judge (read: literary types) to keep their sense of humor. Indeed, the results are both humorous and telling: students on Facebook who list The Bible tend to be at schools where average SAT score is lower than those who list Fight Club. But even the Chuck Palahniuk fans are at schools who finish on average behind those who list The Book of Mormon as a favorite. Shakespeare finishes behind The Kite Runner, and only barely beats Harry Potter (and, if you couldn't tell already, college students on Facebook here in the D.C. area really, really, really like Harry Potter). And why are all the David Foster Wallace fans only at Catholic? And all The Great Gatsby fans are in school the Northwest part of town. Nowhere else. What gives? And there are far too many Dan Brown fans at GW.
Again, it's an interesting list. Take a look. And let's try not to crash Facebook servers as we update our favorite books section with A Bend in the River or Special Topics in Calamity Physics.
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I've been trying to think up something witty to say in response to this, but to no avail. All I can say is that this is really funny & interesting. I've only read 4 of the top books from my alma mater. Something to consider the next time I'm at Borders...
The enemy's gate is down.
:)
I'm more amused that The Bible didn't show up on Catholic University's top ten list at all, but did on Howard and Mason's.
7. "And Many Other's [sic] That I Can't Think Of At The Top Of My Head"
8. "And Many More Books"
Those are personal favorites of mine too. Any links to amazon?
Catholics don't READ the Bible. We hire people to summarize the high points for us. They're called priests.
*Some* of the classic titles that show up on our local lists are also part of the required curriculum at area high schools.
For example, we had to read (when I was in school, but this was many years ago) The Great Gatsby, Jane Eyre, 1984, Brave New World... but maybe for obvious reasons the English teachers weren't keen on opening up debate on Nabokov or Ayn Rand. And every southern girl I know would list To Kill a Mockingbird...
In other words, I suggest there are regional differences at play as well.
And how do regional / cultural differences play out in SAT scores and *intellectual milieu / smartitude*? Yowee. I'll leave that for general discussion....
This is complete crap. It should be the proverbial poster child for the example of Correlation does not equal causation.
I think Griffith's anticipated that criticism, oldnjaded. Here's what's on the front page of the site: "Yes, I'm aware correlation ≠ causation. The results are awesome regardless of direction of causality. You can stop sending me email about this distinction. Thanks."
I'm thinking the students that are actually SMART have locked down their facebook profiles so that random people can't see them (and their possibly embarrassing pictures of drunkeness or whatever). So these are only the books popular among students too stupid to know that Big Brother is watching (try reading 1984 again, kids!)
No mention of the bang-up job he did matching Wikipedia edits with IP addresses?
Anyway, I'm happy to report that my alma mater did pretty well -- apart from Harry Potter (obligatory) and The Giver (there's something about my school and children's books), our top ten books all ranked at 77 or lower on his list. No Dan Brown in sight!
I see Holden Caulfield is still holding his own among the phonies. This is definitely the year he finds out where the ducks go.
Where are Lolita and 100 Years of Solitude on local lists, I wonder?
How ironic that alexandria, arlington, and dc are in the top 20 for romance and sex books, yet the local college lists are so chaste. Maybe Lolita is stiflingly retro or they're bored by Marquez characters, "daubed themselves from head to toe with peach jam" who "lick each other like dogs make mad love on the floor of the porch."
Hey - No love for the only public university in the District? UDC? It *IS* a public land grant university ... and it's all te more a shame that we just ignore it's there. I REALLY want to see their reading list.