Re:New study: The advertising industry is systematically bre...
by mh8h on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @11:09AM
(#22055411)
I think, in this case, you underestimate the probability of that happening randomly. The birthday problem [0] can explain that.
Imagine you have conversations with your spouse about hundreds of things. And then you see ads about hundreds of things. Sometimes they happen to be about the same things. That's something out of ordinary for you, so you remember that. You are spooked by that, and you might even tweet about it, or tell your friends about it. You don't tweet every time you don't see an ad about the thing you talked about.
But the probability of that happening several times over the course of a year is quite high.
Imagine you have conversations with your spouse about hundreds of things. And then you see ads about hundreds of things. Sometimes they happen to be about the same things. That's something out of ordinary for you, so you remember that. You are spooked by that, and you might even tweet about it, or tell your friends about it. You don't tweet every time you don't see an ad about the thing you talked about. But the probability of that happening several times over the course of a year is quite high.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_problem