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Mining twitter: a source for psychological wisdom of the crowds
Ulf-Dietrich Reips1, Pablo Garaizar
1University of Deusto, Bilbao, Spain. u.reips@ikerbasque.org
Behavior Research Methods
|June 25, 2011
Summary
Researchers can now analyze real-time emotional and cognitive shifts using iScience Maps, a new web service that mines Twitter data. This tool helps track the psychological impact of events across different locations and populations.
Area of Science:
- Social Sciences
- Psychology
- Computer Science
Background:
- Microblogging platforms like Twitter have become significant for personal broadcasting, blending information and opinion.
- Location awareness and real-time data enable the creation of "psychological landscapes" to study emotions, cognitions, and behaviors.
- Existing research often lacks tools for dynamic, geographically-specific analysis of public sentiment.
Purpose of the Study:
- Introduce iScience Maps, a free web service for researchers to analyze Twitter data.
- Demonstrate the utility of iScience Maps in assessing the real-time psychological impact of events.
- Replicate a previous study on personality characteristics inferred from first names using Twitter data.
Main Methods:
- Utilized Twitter's streaming and search APIs via PHP libraries.
- Developed a JavaScript frontend for the iScience Maps web service.
- Applied iScience Maps to mine Twitter data for a replication study on first name-based personality traits.
Main Results:
- Successfully replicated findings from Mehrabian & Piercy (1993) regarding affective and personality characteristics inferred from first names.
- Demonstrated the capability of iScience Maps to assess event impact on psychological states across different geographical regions (Western U.S., U.K./Ireland).
- Identified the base rate of names as a potential confounding factor in name-based psychological studies.
Conclusions:
- iScience Maps provides a valuable tool for researchers studying real-time psychological landscapes via social media.
- The study highlights the importance of controlling for name base rates in future research on personality and affect.
- Twitter data, analyzed with tools like iScience Maps, can offer insights into population-level psychological responses to events.
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