What you post shows what you make.
Researchers out of London’s Queen Mary University were able to successfully analyze 2.6 million social media posts and accurately assess the financial background of those who shared the messages.
“Our study shows that the text posted by users in poor neighborhoods is distinguishable from the text generated in wealthier neighborhoods,” said lead researcher Dr. Ignacio Castro.
“Online users’ content reveals socioeconomic factors: in wealthier neighborhoods there is more crime-sensitive posting activity, but overall, more positive sentiment in the posts.”
The more than 2 million social media posts were pulled out of 64,283 areas in the US and 3,325 neighborhoods in the UK, according to the research published in Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media.
“The findings of the study also show that people who live in wealthier neighborhoods were more likely to share positive posts but would discuss crime more, even if the actual crime rates are lower than in poorer neighborhoods,” according to a release on the findings.
“Residents who live in richer neighborhoods are more concerned about crime with the 20% richest neighborhoods discussing crime approximately 1.5 times more compared to the poorest neighborhoods.”
Specifically, nonviolent crimes are discussed more than violent ones overall by both Americans and Brits. However, wealthy Americans discussed violent crime and weapons more than their counterparts in the UK, according to the research.
“This is not the case for middle income neighborhoods, as UK residents tend to post about this type of crime more than their US counterparts.”
All posts were taken from the social media site Nextdoor — a network which specifically works to connect neighbors with one another. It’s the first study of its scale and kind, and it’s expected to lead to further breakthroughs on social media analysis.
“Striking differences in the content shared by people who live in wealthier versus poorer neighborhoods has led researchers to believe that our general online posting activity, beyond Nextdoor, can reveal our socioeconomic status, making user profiling possible,” the release added.