Skip to main content

Hedonometer.org

The Hedonometer measures the overall happiness of Tweets on Twitter.

It provides a simple, engaging example for  Intro Stats since the data is graphed over time, color-coded for the day of the week, and interactive. I think it could also be a much deeper example for a Research Methods class as the "About" section of the website reads like a journal article methods section, in so much that the Hedonometer creators describe their entire process for rating Tweets.

This is what the basic table looks like. You can drill into the data by picking a year or a day of the week to highlight. You can also use the sliding scale along the bottom to specify a time period.

The website is also kept very, very up to date, so it is also a very topical resource.

Data for white supremacy attack in VA
Data for white supremacy attack in VA




In the pages "About" section, they address many methodological questions your students might raise about this tool. It is a good example for the process researchers go through when making judgment calls regarding the operationalization of their variables.:

In order to determine the happiness of any given word, they had to score the words. Here are their scores, which they provide:

Photo of word happiness ratings/http://hedonometer.org/words.html
http://hedonometer.org/words.html
They describe how they rated the words, which gives your students an example of how to use mTurk in research:
Description of how they rated the individual words: http://hedonometer.org/about.html
http://hedonometer.org/about.html
 They also describe a shortcoming of the lexical ratings: Good events that are associated with very, very bad events:
Why bin Laden's death received low happiness ratings: http://hedonometer.org/about.html
http://hedonometer.org/about.html
 They also describe their exact sample:
Hedonometer sampling - http://hedonometer.org/about.html
http://hedonometer.org/about.html


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ways to use funny meme scales in your stats classes

Have you ever heard of the theory that there are multiple people worldwide thinking about the same novel thing at the same time? It is the multiple discovery hypothesis of invention . Like, multiple great minds around the world were working on calculus at the same time. Well, I think a bunch of super-duper psychology professors were all thinking about scale memes and pedagogy at the same time. Clearly, this is just as impressive as calculus. Who were some of these great minds? 1) Dr.  Molly Metz maintains a curated list of hilarious "How you doing?" scales.  2) Dr. Esther Lindenström posted about using these scales as student check-ins. 3) I was working on a blog post about using such scales to teach the basics of variables.  So, I decided to create a post about three ways to use these scales in your stats classes:  1) Teaching the basics of variables. 2) Nominal vs. ordinal scales.  3) Daily check-in with your students.  1. Teach your students the basics...

Using pulse rates to determine the scariest of scary movies

  The Science of Scare project, conducted by MoneySuperMarket.com, recorded heart rates in participants watching fifty horror movies to determine the scariest of scary movies. Below is a screenshot of the original variables and data for 12 of the 50 movies provided by MoneySuperMarket.com: https://www.moneysupermarket.com/broadband/features/science-of-scare/ https://www.moneysupermarket.com/broadband/features/science-of-scare/ Here is my version of the data in Excel format . It includes the original data plus four additional columns (so you can run more analyses on the data): -Year of Release -Rotten Tomato rating -Does this movie have a sequel (yes or no)? -Is this movie a sequel (yes or no)? Here are some ways you could use this in class: 1. Correlation : Rotten Tomato rating does not correlate with the overall scare score ( r = 0.13, p = 0.36).   2. Within-subject research design : Baseline, average, and maximum heart rates are reported for each film.   3. ...

If your students get the joke, they get statistics.

Gleaned from multiple sources (FB, Pinterest, Twitter, none of these belong to me, etc.). Remember, if your students can explain why a stats funny is funny, they are demonstrating statistical knowledge. I like to ask students to explain the humor in such examples for extra credit points (see below for an example from my FA14 final exam). Using xkcd.com for bonus points/assessing if students understand that correlation =/= causation What are the numerical thresholds for probability?  How does this refer to alpha? What type of error is being described, Type I or Type II? What measure of central tendency is being described? Dilbert: http://search.dilbert.com/comic/Kill%20Anyone Sampling, CLT http://foulmouthedbaker.com/2013/10/03/graphs-belong-on-cakes/ Because control vs. sample, standard deviations, normal curves. Also,"skewed" pun. If you go to the original website , the story behind this cakes has to do w...