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Home / Proceedings / Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media

Well-Being Depends on Social Comparison: Hierarchical Models of Twitter Language Suggest That Richer Neighbors Make You Less Happy

February 1, 2023

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Authors

Salvatore Giorgi,Sharath Chandra Guntuku,Johannes C. Eichstaedt,Claire Pajot,H. Andrew Schwartz,Lyle H. Ungar

University of Pennsylvania,University of Pennsylvania,Stanford University,Stanford University,Stony Brook University,University of Pennsylvania


DOI:

10.1609/icwsm.v15i1.18132


Abstract:

Psychological research has shown that subjective well-being is sensitive to social comparison effects; individuals report decreased happiness when their neighbors earn more than they do. In this work, we use Twitter language to estimate the well-being of users, and model both individual and neighborhood income using hierarchical modeling across counties in the United States (US). We show that language-based estimates from a sample of 5.8 million Twitter users replicate results obtained from large-scale well-being surveys --- relatively richer neighbors leads to lower well-being, even when controlling for absolute income. Furthermore, predicting individual-level happiness using hierarchical models (i.e., individuals within their communities) out-predicts standard baselines. We also explore language associated with relative income differences and find that individuals with lower income than their community tend to swear (f*ck, sh*t, b*tch), express anger (pissed, bullsh*t, wtf), hesitation (don't, anymore, idk, confused) and acts of social deviance (weed, blunt, drunk). These results suggest that social comparison robustly affects reported well-being, and that Twitter language analyses can be used to both measure these effects and shed light on their underlying psychological dynamics.

Topics: ICWSM

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Salvatore Giorgi,Sharath Chandra Guntuku,Johannes C. Eichstaedt,Claire Pajot,H. Andrew Schwartz,Lyle H. Ungar Well-Being Depends on Social Comparison: Hierarchical Models of Twitter Language Suggest That Richer Neighbors Make You Less Happy Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (2021) 1069-1074.

Salvatore Giorgi,Sharath Chandra Guntuku,Johannes C. Eichstaedt,Claire Pajot,H. Andrew Schwartz,Lyle H. Ungar Well-Being Depends on Social Comparison: Hierarchical Models of Twitter Language Suggest That Richer Neighbors Make You Less Happy ICWSM 2021, 1069-1074.

Salvatore Giorgi,Sharath Chandra Guntuku,Johannes C. Eichstaedt,Claire Pajot,H. Andrew Schwartz,Lyle H. Ungar (2021). Well-Being Depends on Social Comparison: Hierarchical Models of Twitter Language Suggest That Richer Neighbors Make You Less Happy. Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, 1069-1074.

Salvatore Giorgi,Sharath Chandra Guntuku,Johannes C. Eichstaedt,Claire Pajot,H. Andrew Schwartz,Lyle H. Ungar. Well-Being Depends on Social Comparison: Hierarchical Models of Twitter Language Suggest That Richer Neighbors Make You Less Happy. Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media 2021 p.1069-1074.

Salvatore Giorgi,Sharath Chandra Guntuku,Johannes C. Eichstaedt,Claire Pajot,H. Andrew Schwartz,Lyle H. Ungar. 2021. Well-Being Depends on Social Comparison: Hierarchical Models of Twitter Language Suggest That Richer Neighbors Make You Less Happy. "Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media". 1069-1074.

Salvatore Giorgi,Sharath Chandra Guntuku,Johannes C. Eichstaedt,Claire Pajot,H. Andrew Schwartz,Lyle H. Ungar. (2021) "Well-Being Depends on Social Comparison: Hierarchical Models of Twitter Language Suggest That Richer Neighbors Make You Less Happy", Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, p.1069-1074

Salvatore Giorgi,Sharath Chandra Guntuku,Johannes C. Eichstaedt,Claire Pajot,H. Andrew Schwartz,Lyle H. Ungar, "Well-Being Depends on Social Comparison: Hierarchical Models of Twitter Language Suggest That Richer Neighbors Make You Less Happy", ICWSM, p.1069-1074, 2021.

Salvatore Giorgi,Sharath Chandra Guntuku,Johannes C. Eichstaedt,Claire Pajot,H. Andrew Schwartz,Lyle H. Ungar. "Well-Being Depends on Social Comparison: Hierarchical Models of Twitter Language Suggest That Richer Neighbors Make You Less Happy". Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, 2021, p.1069-1074.

Salvatore Giorgi,Sharath Chandra Guntuku,Johannes C. Eichstaedt,Claire Pajot,H. Andrew Schwartz,Lyle H. Ungar. "Well-Being Depends on Social Comparison: Hierarchical Models of Twitter Language Suggest That Richer Neighbors Make You Less Happy". Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, (2021): 1069-1074.

Salvatore Giorgi,Sharath Chandra Guntuku,Johannes C. Eichstaedt,Claire Pajot,H. Andrew Schwartz,Lyle H. Ungar. Well-Being Depends on Social Comparison: Hierarchical Models of Twitter Language Suggest That Richer Neighbors Make You Less Happy. ICWSM[Internet]. 2021[cited 2023]; 1069-1074.


ISSN: 2334-0770


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