Arthur Nielsen built the modern ratings industry on distrust of self-reported human data.

Evidence

Among those listening in the ballroom was one man for whom the presentation was nothing short of electrifying. Arthur Charles Nielsen, grandfather of today’s data geeks, then ran a market research company that had created the “Nielsen Drug Index” and the “Nielsen Food Index.” Favoring direct reporting, he hated any kind of data collection in which “human elements” might influence results. Consequently, he had a low opinion of the various, early means of measuring radio audiences, like the Hooper Ratings, dominant over the 1930s, that depended on telephone polling. He wanted harder metrics: “If you can put a number on it,” Nielsen was said to say, “then you know something.” — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 364

Categorization

• XREF: Nielsen’s maximal ‘objectivity’ drive connects to today’s surveillance-capitalism data culture and the reader’s attention-platform research.
• CANDY: The ancestor of today’s data geeks founded the ratings empire on hating ‘human elements’ in data — a paradox worth a tweet.