And there’s another huge advantage that Google searches have in getting people to tell the truth: incentives. If you enjoy racist jokes, you have zero incentive to share that un-PC fact with a survey. You do, however, have an incentive to search for the best new racist jokes online. If you think you may be suffering from depression, you don’t have an incentive to admit this to a survey. You do have an incentive to ask Google for symptoms and potential treatments.
