 Big Data under the Microscope and Brains in Social ContextMatthew Brook O’Donnell and Emily B. Falk The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 2015, vol. 659, issue 1, 274-289 Abstract: Methods for analyzing neural and computational social science data are usually used by different types of scientists and generally seen as distinct, but they strongly complement one another. Computational social science methodologies can strengthen and contextualize individual-level analysis, specifically our understanding of the brain. Neuroscience can help to unpack the mechanisms that lead from micro- through meso- to macro-level observations. Integrating levels of analysis is essential to unified progress in social research. We present two example areas that illustrate this integration. First, combining egocentric social network data with neural variables from the “egos†provides insight about why and for whom certain types of antismoking messages may be more or less effective. Second, combining tools from natural language processing with neuroimaging reveals mechanisms involved in successful message propagation, and suggests links from microscopic to macroscopic scales. Keywords: fMRI; neuroscience; social network analysis; linguistic analysis; natural language processing; big data; computational social science (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:anname:v:659:y:2015:i:1:p:274-289 Access Statistics for this article More articles in The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science |
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