Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas

181 | Peter Dodds on Quantifying the Shape of Stories

Jan 24, 2022

Peter Dodds, a computer science professor at the University of Vermont, dives into the fascinating world of storytelling through a scientific lens. He discusses how to quantify emotional arcs in narratives using tools like the hedonometer, revealing insights into audience engagement and societal emotions. Dodds highlights the complexities of human feelings in text, the dynamics of language on platforms like Twitter, and how narratives can shape public perceptions. His work uncovers how storytelling structures can influence everything from social media trends to societal reactions.

01:16:47

Episode guests

Peter Dodds

Highlights

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Is It All in the Lens?

00:25

Intro

6min

Quantifying Story Shapes

10min

Quantifying Emotion in Storytelling: Exploring the Hedonometer

2min

Quantifying Human Emotion through Text

16min

Exploring Language Dynamics and Positive Indicators in Relationships

3min

The Dynamics of Emotional Language

14min

Unraveling Story Dynamics and Social Narratives

5min

Emotions and Narratives in Social Media

25min

A good story takes you on an emotional journey, with ups and downs along the way. Thanks to science, we can quantify that. Peter Dodds works on understanding the structure of stories and other strings of words (including Twitter) by analyzing the valence of individual words, then studying how they are strung together in different kinds of stories. Understanding these structures offers powerful insight into how people communicate and how to reach them. As Peter says, “Never bring statistics to a story fight.”

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Peter Dodds received his Ph.D. in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is currently a professor of computer science at the University of Vermont and Director of the Vermont Complex Systems Center. He has won multiple teaching awards, and was elected a Fellow of the Network Science Society.

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