What Web sites can tell you: An LSU professor has found that social networking Web sites such as Facebook and MySpace provide a useful look at a person’s intelligence and personality, reports the Evansville (Ind.) Courier & Press. Donald H. Kluemper, an assistant professor of management at LSU’s E.J. Ourso College of Business, conducted the study along with Peter Rosen of the University of Evansville and some of their students. LSU students were given access to the Facebook pages of students who were tested, then asked to guess how the subjects did on I.Q. and personality tests, and how high their GPAs were. In many cases, what students guessed corresponded equally well with how the test subjects did. Rosen and Kluemper say the Web sites provide useful insight into a potential employee, but urged students to be careful. “You now have a four-year history of your life from freshman to senior year in photo form,” Rosen says.
More recognition for one of the ‘Best and Brightest’: Nikhil Dhurandhar, an associate professor at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, is making British media rounds this week. Dhurandhar, who has a theory that obesity is spread by a common virus, will be on a BBC program tonight. The Daily Express, a tabloid, reported on his theory today. Dhurandhar has been honored by Esquire as one of the best and brightest people around. Read the story about his work here.
