Contrasting compulsive behaviour: Computerized text analysis of compulsion narratives.

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Behavioral Science
• Digital Humanities

Background:

• Compulsive gambling and compulsive buying behaviors share underlying impulse-control deficits.
• Lexical analysis of personal narratives can reveal psychological characteristics of these compulsions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the linguistic characteristics of personal narratives from individuals with compulsive gambling and compulsive buying behaviors.
• To investigate similarities and differences in text-based psychological markers between these two compulsive behaviors.

Main Methods:

• Utilized secondary data from an online mental health forum (Psychforums).
• Analyzed narratives of compulsive gambling (n=199) and compulsive buying (n=196) using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) tool.
• Performed lexical analysis focusing on psychological and social dimensions of language.

Main Results:

• Compulsive buying narratives exhibited significantly higher clout and emotional tone compared to compulsive gambling narratives.
• Compulsive buying narratives demonstrated significantly lower authenticity than compulsive gambling narratives.
• No significant differences were found in analytical thinking between the two groups' narratives.

Conclusions:

• Linguistic analysis of online narratives offers insights into the psychological underpinnings of compulsive behaviors.
• While sharing impulse-control roots, compulsive buying and gambling manifest distinct linguistic markers related to emotional expression and self-perception.
• Future research should incorporate demographic variables and compare narratives across diverse online platforms.