Abstract
This study investigates whether online daters looking for a long-term relationship behave linguistically different in the dating profile texts they write from casual relationship seekers. To determine language use differences, we first analyze 12,310 authentic online dating profile texts using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) program on three linguistic categories: the occurrence of physical appearance and status-related words, positive emotion words and personal pronouns. In addition, we employ an exploratory language identification method to investigate how profile texts of long-term and casual relationship seekers can be discriminated based on a selection of linguistic features. Both the LIWC and the word-based classifier method indicate there are linguistic differences between the profile texts of the two groups of relationship seekers. Most notably, long-term relationship seekers are more likely to use words that emphasize internal characteristics that are more important when looking for a long-term relationship partner.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Proceedings of the 6th Conference on Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) and Social Media Corpora (CMC-Corpora 2018) |
| Subtitle of host publication | 17-18 September 2018, University of Antwerp |
| Editors | Reinhild Vandekerckhove, Darja Fiser, Lisa Hilte |
| Pages | 58-62 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9789057285868 |
| Publication status | Published - 2018 |
| Externally published | Yes |
| Event | Conference on Computer-Mediated Communication and Social Media Corpora - Antwerp, Belgium Duration: 17 Sept 2018 → 18 Sept 2018 |
Conference
| Conference | Conference on Computer-Mediated Communication and Social Media Corpora |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Belgium |
| City | Antwerp |
| Period | 17/09/18 → 18/09/18 |