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03/26/2018: We took this personality test so you don’t have to
Mar 26, 2018

03/26/2018: We took this personality test so you don’t have to

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Cambridge Analytica allegedly leveraged a personality test taken by 270,000 people to scrape data from 50 million Facebook users in its effort to influence elections. The quiz was based on a popular test used for modeling what’s called the “Big 5” personality traits. We had Kai Ryssdal take the personality test and talk to cybersecurity researcher Stephen Cobb about how these tests can be used as a message-targeting tool. Also on today's show: South Korea has become the first nation to be permanently exempted from the steel and aluminum tariffs. But it has also accepted quotas reducing the quantity of steel it sends to the U.S. Lastly, we take a look at "opportunity zones," programs in the new tax law that are trying to bring private investment to low-income communities. Such programs have proven ineffective for nearly 40 years, so why try again?

Segments From this episode

DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

How "Murphy Brown" paved the way for women in television

Mar 26, 2018
Writer Joy Press explains how the show changed TV history at a time when "there were very limited ways to be a woman on television."
"Murphy Brown" creator Diane English, center, with actors Grant Shaud and Candice Bergen, attend a 25th anniversary event for the show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 2013.
Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images

Cambridge Analytica allegedly leveraged a personality test taken by 270,000 people to scrape data from 50 million Facebook users in its effort to influence elections. The quiz was based on a popular test used for modeling what’s called the “Big 5” personality traits. We had Kai Ryssdal take the personality test and talk to cybersecurity researcher Stephen Cobb about how these tests can be used as a message-targeting tool. Also on today’s show: South Korea has become the first nation to be permanently exempted from the steel and aluminum tariffs. But it has also accepted quotas reducing the quantity of steel it sends to the U.S. Lastly, we take a look at “opportunity zones,” programs in the new tax law that are trying to bring private investment to low-income communities. Such programs have proven ineffective for nearly 40 years, so why try again?

Music from the episode