Using Twitter To Identify Psychopaths

Recent research says that psychopaths have discernible patterns in their writing. That study was done by Cornell researchers using conventional long form writing by known psychopaths. Chris Sumner of the Online Privacy Foundation along with Florida Atlantic University and Kaggle applied that idea to Twitter to see if psychopathy could be predicted from Tweets. They recruited 2,900 volunteer Twitter users to take a personality test and then allow their Tweets to be analyzed. The results were surprisingly accurate at connecting certain Tweet stylings to psychopathic test results.

What are some of the Twitter stylings of these undesirables? Curse words. Angry responses to other people, including swearing and use of the word “hate.” Using the word “we.” Using periods. Using filler words such as “blah” and “I mean” and “um.”

Sumner doesn’t recommend using such a system to find psychopaths on Twitter. There would be too many false positives. The research would be more useful in analyzing groups of people. But what about employers using this technique to screen job applicants?

Sumner admits though that his study could be applied to employee assessment as well. “If you want a competitive environment, you might want people with high levels of these traits,” he opines. (Psychopaths make great CEOS, after all.)

Link -via Geekosystem