Am I who I say I am? Unobtrusive self-representation and personality recognition on Facebook.

Across social media platforms users (sub)consciously represent themselves in a way which is appropriate for their intended audience. This has unknown impacts on studies with unobtrusive designs based on digital (social) platforms, and studies of contemporary social phenomena in online settings. A la...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Margeret Hall, Simon Caton
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2017-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5604947?pdf=render
_version_ 1818421557176827904
author Margeret Hall
Simon Caton
author_facet Margeret Hall
Simon Caton
author_sort Margeret Hall
collection DOAJ
description Across social media platforms users (sub)consciously represent themselves in a way which is appropriate for their intended audience. This has unknown impacts on studies with unobtrusive designs based on digital (social) platforms, and studies of contemporary social phenomena in online settings. A lack of appropriate methods to identify, control for, and mitigate the effects of self-representation, the propensity to express socially responding characteristics or self-censorship in digital settings, hinders the ability of researchers to confidently interpret and generalize their findings. This article proposes applying boosted regression modelling to fill this research gap. A case study of paid Amazon Mechanical Turk workers (n = 509) is presented where workers completed psychometric surveys and provided anonymized access to their Facebook timelines. Our research finds indicators of self-representation on Facebook, facilitating suggestions for its mitigation. We validate the use of LIWC for Facebook personality studies, as well as find discrepancies with extant literature about the use of LIWC-only approaches in unobtrusive designs. Using survey data and LIWC sentiment categories as predictors, the boosted regression model classified the Five Factor personality model with an average accuracy of 74.6%. The contribution of this work is an accurate prediction of psychometric information based on short, informal text.
first_indexed 2024-12-14T13:12:15Z
format Article
id doaj.art-a4d0f3fa570f477ea42b51a89f328045
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 1932-6203
language English
last_indexed 2024-12-14T13:12:15Z
publishDate 2017-01-01
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
record_format Article
series PLoS ONE
spelling doaj.art-a4d0f3fa570f477ea42b51a89f3280452022-12-21T23:00:10ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032017-01-01129e018441710.1371/journal.pone.0184417Am I who I say I am? Unobtrusive self-representation and personality recognition on Facebook.Margeret HallSimon CatonAcross social media platforms users (sub)consciously represent themselves in a way which is appropriate for their intended audience. This has unknown impacts on studies with unobtrusive designs based on digital (social) platforms, and studies of contemporary social phenomena in online settings. A lack of appropriate methods to identify, control for, and mitigate the effects of self-representation, the propensity to express socially responding characteristics or self-censorship in digital settings, hinders the ability of researchers to confidently interpret and generalize their findings. This article proposes applying boosted regression modelling to fill this research gap. A case study of paid Amazon Mechanical Turk workers (n = 509) is presented where workers completed psychometric surveys and provided anonymized access to their Facebook timelines. Our research finds indicators of self-representation on Facebook, facilitating suggestions for its mitigation. We validate the use of LIWC for Facebook personality studies, as well as find discrepancies with extant literature about the use of LIWC-only approaches in unobtrusive designs. Using survey data and LIWC sentiment categories as predictors, the boosted regression model classified the Five Factor personality model with an average accuracy of 74.6%. The contribution of this work is an accurate prediction of psychometric information based on short, informal text.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5604947?pdf=render
spellingShingle Margeret Hall
Simon Caton
Am I who I say I am? Unobtrusive self-representation and personality recognition on Facebook.
PLoS ONE
title Am I who I say I am? Unobtrusive self-representation and personality recognition on Facebook.
title_full Am I who I say I am? Unobtrusive self-representation and personality recognition on Facebook.
title_fullStr Am I who I say I am? Unobtrusive self-representation and personality recognition on Facebook.
title_full_unstemmed Am I who I say I am? Unobtrusive self-representation and personality recognition on Facebook.
title_short Am I who I say I am? Unobtrusive self-representation and personality recognition on Facebook.
title_sort am i who i say i am unobtrusive self representation and personality recognition on facebook
url http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5604947?pdf=render
work_keys_str_mv AT margerethall amiwhoisayiamunobtrusiveselfrepresentationandpersonalityrecognitiononfacebook
AT simoncaton amiwhoisayiamunobtrusiveselfrepresentationandpersonalityrecognitiononfacebook