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Education Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Fort Hays State University

Journal

2024

Attraction; random forest; machine learning; men who have sex with men; sexual preferences; gay males

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Full-Text Articles in Education

Attraction And Machine Learning: Evaluating Msm Attraction Preferences Using Random Forest, Darin Challacombe Mar 2024

Attraction And Machine Learning: Evaluating Msm Attraction Preferences Using Random Forest, Darin Challacombe

SACAD: John Heinrichs Scholarly and Creative Activity Days

Recent advances in machine learning (broadly) and random forest analysis (specifically) have allowed researchers to examine variables and datasets in previously unknown or unexplored ways. Following a recommendation by Fife and D’Onofrio (2022) to utilize machine learning in the social sciences, I used previously reported attraction data (Challacombe and Perdomo, 2021) on males who have sex with other males (MSM) and applied a random forest analysis against the variables. I also utilized two different programming languages—R and Python—to study the data. While both programming languages provided different data points, the general results were similar. In both studies, the importance of …