Going undercover on social networks

Results show that men in relationships and with large on-line networks are more like to look at women they do not know. In contrast, single men with large networks are more likely to look at women they do know.

From this Harvard Business School paper (PDF) which "proposes that networks can act as covers which allow actors to participate in markets while maintaining a plausible excuse that they are not. Such covers are most valuable to actors in long-term relationships, as those who are already employed or in a long-term romantic relationship should not be seen as participating in the market for a new relationship."​

I wish, like OkCupid did with OkTrends ("Frequent tweeters have shorter real-life relationships than everyone else, probably via some bit.ly hack"), social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook revealed more aggregate insight into human behavior culled from their gazillions of users. There's much of interest there, but it's locked away.

I have many theses I'd love to test. For example, the relationship between vain status updates on Facebook and the number of total profile photos you have uploaded, or the relationship between people who cheat at Words with Friends and people who cheat on their taxes.​ Foursquare checkins or Instagram food photo restaurant sources as a predictor of annual income.  I need to finagle access to such data and turn it into a bestselling pop psychology book.