Yesterday, Ben Tribbett pointed me to a fascinating tool called TweetPsych, which "uses two linguistic analysis algorithms (RID and LIWC) to build a psychological profile of a person based on the content of their tweets." The theory is that "Communication is a window into a person’s mind, and the way a person talks can tell you a lot about how they think." I'm not sure if I buy this, but I figured I'd test it out on the Democratic and Republican statewide candidates, plus a few others just for fun, and see what it looks like. With that...Creigh Deeds
With 405 updates, Creigh scores high on "Time" (141.51), "Audio sensations" (98.03), "Temporal references" (80.87), "Glory" (76.07), "Social behavior" (63.53) and the "Past tense" (44.37). Example: "Busy day. Listening now to Jayhawks. Had a variety of events and music today. The 4th will be great. We press on"
Bob McDonnell
With 185 updates, McDonnell is off the charts on "Social behavior" (370.19), followed far behind by "Work" (62.16), "Time" (48.4) and "Glory" (46.47). Example: "Had a great time in Farmville talking with the Virginia American Legion Girls."
Jody Wagner
With 323 updates, scores extremely high on "Glory" (242.78), "Social behavior" (207.29) and "Temporal references" (100.43), followed by "Narcissism" (30.08) and "Positive affect" (17.36). Wagner also talks a lot about "Time" (188.7), particularly the "Past tense" (101.73). Example: "Enjoyed the Fauquier Dems Party-- headed to Fairfax for the night! July 4th was really fun!"
Bill Bolling
Not much personality (or updates - just 70) here, with the top two being "Time" (170.23) and "Space" (107.15), followed by the ever-exciting "Occupation and work" (87.2), something called "Motion" (46.23), "Past tense" (33.88) and "Money" (15.99). Example: "Thanks to everyone who contributed towards our financial goal for the end of June!" Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Steve Shannon
Only has 21 Twitter updates, so take the results with a huge grain of salt: "Time" (318.87), "Physical references" (226.11), "Narcissism" (198.99), "Temporal References" (164.31), "Positive Emotions" (148.81) and "Glory" (120.05). Looking at his posts, they appear to be standard "did this, had a great time" boilerplate, like "Leaving Dave Poisson's event in Loudoun, Dave gave a terrific speech and had a nice crowd." Maybe this TweetPsych thing is complete nonsense, or maybe it simply "works best on users who have posted more than 1000 updates."
Ken Cuccinelli
Only 11 updates, so this is pretty much meaningless: "Time" (241.58), "Temporal references" (209.11), "Social behavior" (199.3), "Past tense" (189.54) and "Space" (124.37). Typical Tweet: "Great meetings in SWVa (Abingdon & Bristol). On way up to Roanoke til Sat. morn (se u @ Lendy's at 6 p.m Friday), then on to Winchester."
Now, here are a few elected officials of interest.
Sen. Mark Warner
With 126 updates, Warner scores high on "Social behavior" (151.81), "Money" (99.84), and "Occupation & work" (71.91). Typical tweet: "Banking Cmte hrg w/ Treas. Secy Geithner - a lot to like in admin's re-reg proposals, but concerns w/ several pieces of it."
Rep. Tom Perriello
With 208 updates, Perriello is off the charts on "Social behavior" (305.2), also high on "Time" (103.03), "Occupation & work" (61.92). Typical tweet: "In Danville holding a healthcare roundtable to hear from our medical community as we head into the next big debate..."
Rep. Eric Cantor
With 119 updates, Cantor scores high on "Money" (77.12), "Restraint" (74.51) and "Aggression" (46.61). In other words, he aggressively promotes tax cuts for rich people and powerful corporations. Ha. Typical tweet: "House Democrats vote for a national energy tax that even President Obama says will 'cause electricity prices to skyrocket...'"
Finally, here are a few bloggers.
Kos
An extremely active tweeter with 3,365 updates, Kos rates high on "Abstract thought" (81.83), "Aggression" (71.87), and "Moral imperative" (38.08). Now that seems about right for Kos, and I don't mean that in a bad way. :) Typical tweet: "Alright, who's next? Romney or Jindal? They're running out of saviors."
Not Larry Sabato
With 3,739 Twitter updates, Ben Tribbett ranks high on "Time" (139.82), "Temporal references" (81.5), "Social behavior" (78.1) and "Abstract thought" (71.15). No "Aggression" for Ben? Actually, he scores 32.44 on that metric, which is far lower than Kos but just a bit lower than yours truly (see below). Who would have thunk it? :) Typical tweet: "Holy Crap- just heard Cooch was meeting with a bunch of anarchists today!"
Jon Henke
Also a super-active tweeter, with 3,244 updates, Jon is obviously an intellectual based on a TweetPsych score of 131.87 on "Abstract thought." Jon's also high on "Moral imperative" (65.23) and "Social behavior" (63.37). Typical tweet: "Sarah Palin is gone. And that's fine...We don't need a leader; we need direction."
Yours Truly
With 1,464 updates, I'm definitely an active tweeter but not at Kos, NLS or Jon Henke levels quite yet. Working on it! :) I score fairly high on "Social behavior" (62.49), "Cognitive processes" (44.67), "Aggression" (39.05) and "Abstract thought" (31.18). Typical tweet: "RFK, Jr. on the heartbreaking tragedy of Mountaintop Removal."
Anyway, if you find this sort of thing interesting, go for it and please report your results. If not, please feel free to ignore it all as pop psychological/pseudo-scientific b.s., which it very well may be. Either way, I think it's kinda fun, but then again, I majored in psychology...
