User Modeling analytics are developed based on the psychology of language in combination with data analytics algorithms. User Modeling extracts three types of personal characteristics from the data a person generates in social media or within their written/digital communications: Big 5 Personality - This is the most used personality model that generally describes how a person engages with the world by the following five dimensions: – Openness-to-Experience - associated with curiosity, intellect, and an appreciation for art and adventure – Conscientiousness - associated with organization and industriousness – Extraversion - associated with positive and outgoing attitudes toward other people – Agreeableness - associated with compassion and cooperation toward other people – Neuroticism - associated with a sensitivity to negative emotions Each of the five top-level dimensions has six sub-facets that further characterize an individual at a finer-grained level. Basic Human Values - this model describes motivating factors that influence a person's decision-making. Our current model includes five dimensions of human values based on Schwartz's work in psychology: – Self-Transcendence - motivated by helping others – Self-Enhancement - motivated by increasing social status – Hedonism - motivated by pleasurable experiences – Openness-to-Change - motivated by experiencing new things in the world – Conservation - motivated by tradition and conformity Fundamental Human Needs - this model is based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs and Ford's work on Marketing and consumer-related needs modeling. It describes, at a high level, which aspects of a product will resonate most with a person. – Ideal - the person likes high-end, finely crafted products – Self-Expression - the person likes products that express their individual identity – Closeness - the person likes products that help them establish closer relationships with family and friends – Excitement - the person likes products that provide exciting, adventurous experience – Practicality - the person likes products that simply get the job done
For more detailed information about the research and technical background behind the User Modeling service, see the following: You read what you value: understanding personal values and reading interests Gary Hsieh, Jilin Chen, Jalal Mahmud, Jeffrey Nichols; CHI 2014. 983-986. Understanding individuals' personal values from social media word use Jilin Chen, Gary Hsieh, Jalal Mahmud, Jeffrey Nichols; CSCW 2014. 405-414 Recommending targeted strangers from whom to solicit information on social media Jalal Mahmud, Michelle X. Zhou, Nimrod Megiddo, Jeffrey Nichols, Clemens Drews; IUI 2013: 37-48 Modeling User Attitude toward Controversial Topics in Online Social Media Huiji Gao, Jalal Mahmud, Jilin Chen, Jeffrey Nichols, Michelle Zhou; ICWSM 2014. Who will retweet this?: Automatically Identifying and Engaging Strangers on Twitter to Spread Information Kyumin Lee, Jalal Mahmud, Jilin Chen, Michelle Zhou, Jeffrey Nichols; IUI 2014. 247-256 KnowMe and ShareMe: understanding automatically discovered personality traits from social media and user sharing preferences Liang Gou, Michelle Zhou, Huahai Yang; CHI 2014. Identifying User Needs from Social Media Huahai Yang, Yanyuo Li; IBM Research Report. PersonalityViz: a visualization tool to analyze people's personality with social media Liang Gou, Jalal Mahmud, Eben M. Haber, Michelle X. Zhou; IUI Companion 2013: 45-46