Abstract
Are Americans weaving their political views more tightly into the fabric of their self-identity over time? If so, then we might expect partisan disagreements to continue becoming more emotional, tribal, and intractable. Much recent scholarship has speculated that this politicization of Americans' identity is occurring, but there has been little compelling attempt to quantify the phenomenon, largely because the concept of identity is notoriously difficult to measure. We introduce here a methodology, Longitudinal Online Profile Sampling (LOPS), which affords quantifiable insights into the way individuals amend their identity over time. Using this method, we analyze millions of “bios” on the microblogging site Twitter over a 4-year span, and conclude that the average American user is increasingly integrating politics into their social identity. Americans on the site are adding political words to their bios at a higher rate than any other category of words we measured, and are now more likely to describe themselves by their political affiliation than their religious affiliation. The data suggest that this is due to both cohort and individual-level effects.
Highlights
Because the distinctions are essential, we begin by noting what this paper does not intend to measure
To explore whether political affiliation is becoming a more prominent aspect of individuals’ sense of social identity, we look to microblogging platform Twitter, where a user can write a “bio”—a brief, amendable personal synopsis that informs other users of biographical basics
Conduct an empirical study of the relationship between political ideology and social identity, we look to popular microblogging platform Twitter
Summary
Because the distinctions are essential, we begin by noting what this paper does not intend to measure This is not an analysis of whether the general American public, over the past several years, is exhibiting more politics-based behavior. To explore whether political affiliation is becoming a more prominent aspect of individuals’ sense of social identity, we look to microblogging platform Twitter, where a user can write a “bio”—a brief, amendable personal synopsis that informs other users of biographical basics. We treat these bios as a proxy for an individual’s sense of identity—the way the individual wishes to be seen in the social world. Before presenting these findings, some discussion of the relevant concepts is necessary
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