BWL XI: Paper in Nature Reviews Psychology
A new article has been accepted for publication in Nature Reviews Psychology (IF: 16.8). Together with an interdisciplinary team of domain experts, we describe how natural language processing (NLP) can be used to analyse text data in behavioural science.
Title: Using natural language processing to analyse text data in behavioural science
Co-authors: Feuerriegel S (LMU Munich), Maarouf A (LMU Munich), Bär D (LMU Munich), Geissler D (LMU Munich), Schweisthal J (LMU Munich), Robertson C (NYU), Rathje S (NYU), Hartmann J (TUM), Mohammad S (NRC Canada), Netzer O (Columbia Business School), Siegel A (University of Colorado), Plank B (LMU Munich), Van Bavel J (NYU)
Abstract: Language is a uniquely human trait at the core of human interactions. The language people use often reflects their personality, intentions and state of mind. With the integration of the Internet and social media into everyday life, much of human communication is documented as written text. These online forms of communication (for example, blogs, reviews, social media posts and emails) provide a window into human behaviour and therefore present abundant research opportunities for behavioural science. In this Review, we describe how natural language processing (NLP) can be used to analyse text data in behavioural science. First, we review applications of text data in behavioural science. Second, we describe the NLP pipeline and explain the underlying modelling approaches (for example, dictionary-based approaches and large language models). We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of these methods for behavioural science, in particular with respect to the trade-off between interpretability and accuracy. Finally, we provide actionable recommendations for using NLP to ensure rigour and reproducibility.
Link to paper: https://rdcu.be/d5oda