What is the meaning of 5 *'s? An investigation of the expression and rating of sentiment

Daniel Hardt, Julie Wulff; Proceedings of KONVENS 2012 (PATHOS 2012 workshop), pp. 319-326, September 2012.

Abstract

Do user populations differ systematically in the way they express and rate sentiment? We use large collections of Danish and U.S. film reviews to investigate this question, and we find evidence of important systematic differences: first, positive ratings are far more common in the U.S. data than in the Danish data. Second, highly positive terms occur far more frequently in the U.S. data. Finally, Danish reviewers tend to under-rate their own positive reviews compared to U.S. reviewers. This has potentially far-reaching implications for the interpretation of user ratings, the use of which has exploded in recent years.

[pdf] [bibtex]