Researchers used artificial intelligence to analyze adjectives used to describe men and women in 3.5 million books written in English between 1900 and 2008. They contained around 11 billion words. The results from this large data set confirmed what we already knew.
“We are clearly able to see that the words used for women refer much more to their appearances than the words used to describe men. Thus, we have been able to confirm a widespread perception, only now at a statistical level,” says computer scientist and assistant professor Isabelle Augenstein of the University of Copenhagen’s computer science department.
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Their analysis demonstrates that negative verbs associated with body and appearance appear five times as often for female figures as male ones. The analysis also demonstrates that positive and neutral adjectives relating to the body and appearance occur approximately twice as often in descriptions of female figures, while male ones are most frequently described using adjectives that refer to their behavior and personal qualities.
Augenstein explains why these words matter to artificial intelligence, as such algorithms are made to detect recurring patterns as "true," while humans understand that just because something is prevalent or long-lasting doesn't make it right. Read more about the research at the World Economic Forum. -via Boing Boing
(Image credit: The University of Copenhagen)