Incredible, huh! Canadians appear more positive on Twitter than Americans, study finds

TORONTO – Canadians tend to be more positive on Twitter than their American counterparts, according to a new study from an Ontario university that suggests that the language we use can help explain the national stereotypes that we hold true.

But the McMaster University study warns people against the belief that Canadians are actually nicer than their southern neighbors, stating that stereotypes are not supported by reliable data.

Researchers at the University of Hamilton have analyzed 40 million tweets and isolated the words, emoticons and emoticons most disproportionately used on the social media platform by individuals from each country.

The lead author of the study said that the team of linguists who analyzed the tweets was trying to answer a question that has long been of concern to social psychologists: where do the national stereotypes come from?

"Why do we think there is a French, Canadian or American personality, and why do we think they are different from each other?" Said Bryor Snefjella.

He pointed out that previous studies have shown that although the personalities of Canadians and Americans are not very different, people in both countries tended to strongly believe that Canadians were more polite.

The findings of the McMaster study, published online Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE, suggest that national stereotypes are at least partly based on the words we have chosen.

In tweets collected by researchers between February 2015 and February 2016, Canadians tend to use words like "excellent", "thank you" and "unbelievable", while Americans use words like "hate" more frequently. "Failed" and "crazy". "The study found.

The researchers then conducted a second phase of the study, exposing a group of participants to the most typical words and emojis from each country. They were not told how the words were chosen. Participants were asked what, in their opinion, were the personality traits of someone who often uses these words and emojis.

This exercise revealed that study participants thought that a person using the words most frequently used by Canadians on Twitter would have a personality matching the stereotype of a Canadian, while that. a person using words more often used by Americans was supposed to have a personality matching the stereotype of an American.

"It seems to suggest that we are building our national identity. We want to be Canadian, "Snefjella said of the results. "We express that or establish that stereotype through our linguistic choices."

A spokesman for Twitter declined to comment on the results, but noted that the year on which the social media platform had increased the maximum number of characters allowed in a tweet from 140 to 280, users have included the words "please" and "thank you" in their message. tweets more frequently.