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.)
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