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Towards A Science Of Human Stories: Using Sentiment Analysis And Emotional Arcs To Understand The Building Blocks Of Complex Social Systems, Andrew James Reagan

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

We can leverage data and complex systems science to better understand society and human nature on a population scale through language --- utilizing tools that include sentiment analysis, machine learning, and data visualization.

Data-driven science and the sociotechnical systems that we use every day are enabling a transformation from hypothesis-driven, reductionist methodology to complex systems sciences.

Namely, the emergence and global adoption of social media has rendered possible the real-time estimation of population-scale sentiment, with profound implications for our understanding of human behavior.

Advances in computing power, natural language processing, and digitization of text now make it possible to study …