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Characterizing geographic variation in well-being using tweets

  • H. Andrew Schwartz
  • , Johannes C. Eichstaedt
  • , Margaret L. Kern
  • , Lukasz Dziurzynski
  • , Megha Agrawal
  • , Gregory J. Park
  • , Shrinidhi K. Lakshmikanth
  • , Sneha Jha
  • , Martin E.P. Seligman
  • , Lyle Ungar
  • , Richard E. Lucas
  • University of Pennsylvania
  • Michigan State University

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

201 Scopus citations

Abstract

The language used in tweets from 1,300 different US counties was found to be predictive of the subjective well-being of people living in those counties as measured by representative surveys. Topics, sets of co-occurring words derived from the tweets using LDA, improved accuracy in predicting life satisfaction over and above standard demographic and socio-economic controls (age, gender, ethnicity, income, and education). The LDA topics provide a greater behavioural and conceptual resolution into life satisfaction than the broad socio-economic and demographic variables. For example, tied in with the psychological literature, words relating to outdoor activities, spiritual meaning, exercise, and good jobs correlate with increased life satisfaction, while words signifying disengagement like 'bored' and 'tired' show a negative association.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 7th International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media, ICWSM 2013
PublisherAssociation for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence
Pages583-591
Number of pages9
ISBN (Print)9781577356103
StatePublished - 2013
Event7th International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media, ICWSM 2013 - Cambridge, MA, United States
Duration: Jul 8 2013Jul 11 2013

Publication series

NameProceedings of the 7th International Conference on Weblogs and Social Media, ICWSM 2013

Conference

Conference7th International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media, ICWSM 2013
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityCambridge, MA
Period07/8/1307/11/13

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