Preliminary Results from my Facebook study

At the time of this writing, the following preliminary results have been gathered for my study:
Of the twelve people who have currently completed the survey, seven were white females, two white males, two black males and one black female.
Preliminary data:

Writer 1
Race--25% correct and most 36% not sure at all
Age--18% correct and most 42% not sure at all
Gender--92% correct, and most 42% not sure at all

Writer 2
Race-- 8% correct and 58% not sure at all
Age--33% correct and 50% pretty sure
Gender--92% incorrect, and most 33% were pretty sure

Writer 3
Race--75% correct and most 42% not sure at all
Gender--75% correct and most 42% kind of sure
Age--33% correct and most 42% not sure at all

Writer 4
Race--75% correct and 58% not sure at all
Age--42% correct and most 42% kind of sure
Gender--67% incorrect and 33% pretty sure

Writer 5
Race--58% correct and 58% not sure at all
Gender--92% correct and 8% positive
Age--67% incorrect and 42% not sure at all

Writer 6
Race--58% correct but most 58% not sure at all
Age--75% correct but 58% not sure at all
Gender--75% incorrect and most 42% kind of sure

Writer 7
Race--67% incorrect and 67% not sure at all
Age--50% correct and 33% not sure at all, kind of sure and pretty sure
Gender--75% correct and 50% kind of sure

Writer 8
Race--73% correct but 55% were sure at all
Age--82% incorrect but 64% pretty sure
Gender--55% correct and 36% pretty sure

Writer 9
Race--73% correct but 55% not sure at all
Age—Most, 45% correct and 45% were pretty sure
Gender--73% incorrect and most 36% pretty sure

Writer 10
Race--Most, 50% correct but 50% (most) not sure at all
Age--58% incorrect and 42% pretty sure
Gender--100% correct and 25% positive

Participants were most accurate when guessing the gender of the writers. Despite the accuracy of their guesses, participants were still unsure of their guesses. Interestingly, two of the three male writers were incorrectly guessed as female and the participants were much more confident in their guesses. Participants were almost as accurate when guessing the race of the writers, although they were much less sure of their guesses. The participants were least accurate in guessing the age of the writers, but described more confidence in their guesses.

These preliminary results align with previous research. DeAndrea, D; Shaw, A. and Levine, T. (2010) found no significant differences in the way different races represent themselves on their Facebook pages. Like the DeAndrea et al. study, the writers chosen were solicited from the friends of one Facebook profile, suggesting that there may be some similarity in the personality, writing style and other factors among the writers and that these similarities override any racial differences. The seemingly homogenous group chosen for the study may contribute to the difficulty in discerning race through the text provided. The results of the participants’ attempts to guess the race of the writers, although accurate, revealed a low level of confidence in their guesses. These results seem to challenge Szpara, M.Y. & Wylie, E.C. (2007) findings that all the African American participants had identifiable features of African American English. The uncertainty of the participants when guessing the writers’ races could be contributed to a lack of obvious African American English features and other stereotypically ethnic writing features.

Two mini-interviews were conducted while the participants completed the survey. Attempting to guess the race of writer 4, a participant asked “What is Sons of Anarchy?,” referencing the post provided by the writer, and asked if there characters on the show were white. This question suggested that this participant, a 33 year old black male, was relying on context to determine the race of the writer and possibly age and gender as well. During the second interview, a 50 year old black female revealed difficulty and frustration with guessing accurately. “I’m not good at this kind of thing,” she stated, suggesting that the demographic information revealed by the posts was not obvious.