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Analyzing Tweets To Identify Psychopaths
nonprofiteer writes "Researchers presenting at Defcon next week have developed a psychopathy prediction model for Twitter. It analyzes linguistic tells to rate users' levels of narcissism, machiavellianism and other similarities to Patrick Bateman. 'The FBI could use this to flag potential wrongdoers, but I think it's much more compelling for psychologists to use to understand large communities of people,' says Chris Sumner of the Online Privacy Foundation. Some of the Twitter clues: 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.' So, um, yeah."
> Curse words.
Hardly any, but mostly due to many years on a MUD with strict rules. Abusing "damn" and so on, though.
> Angry responses to other people
Hell yeah.
> including swearing and use of the word "hate."
Got a bigger vocabulary, but yeah.
> Using the word "we."
Check, to a big extent.
> Using periods.
You mean, so those with no punctuation are not morons but normal people? Blah. Check.
> Using filler words such as 'blah'
See above.
> and 'I mean'
Check.
>and 'um.'
"hrm", "hmm" and "ghrmblah" (see also two paragraphs above)
So, you mean, is there any hope for me?
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
What are you, some sort of psychopath? Flag him!
Filthy, filthy copyrapists!
Lets see, one of the most well known trait of psychopaths is their tendency to lie.
Is that true ... or are you just a psychopath?
No, this system tries to predict the future by reading posts on twitter. Could a certain percentage of people who commit violent crime share the common trait of psychopathy? Certainly. Do all? No. In fact, a rather large percentage of the population are psychopathic, yet lead normal, non-violent lives. Far more people that are not psychopathic commit crimes than those with psychopathy.
The end result of this research is rather clear: Watch what you say on the internet, the FBI might flag you. And that's a far more dangerous threat than a few psychopaths walking around. If you look at the biggest mass murders in human history, every single one of them was a government official. Think about that for a while.
Of course, the real insight is Reverse Phrenology! Kicking people in the head to make them better people!
-- Sig down