Penn Psychologists Tap Big Data, Twitter to Analyze Accuracy of Stereotypes

What’s in a tweet? People draw conclusions about us, from our gender to education level, based on the words we use on social media. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, along with colleagues from the Technical University of Darmstadt and the University of Melbourne, have now analyzed the accuracy of those inferences. Their work revealed that, though stereotypes and the truth often aligned, with people making accurate assumptions more than two-thirds of the time, inaccurate characterizations still showed up.

Research, StereotypesBrigitte BellanJune 17, 2017University of Pennsylvania, University of Melbourne, University of Darmstadt, Jordan Carpenter, Daniel Preotiuc-Pietro, Lucie Flekova, Salvatore Giorgi, Courtney Hagan, Margaret L. Kern, Anneke E. K. Buffone, Lyle Ungar, Martin E. P. Seligman