xjtulyc Computational Sociology
Computational social science methods for studying online behavior, social networks, political polarization, and survey-based causal inference. This skill covers data collection from major social media platforms, automated account detection, network analysis metrics, and experimental designs for measuring social preferences.
Prerequisites
pip install tweepy praw vaderSentiment networkx pandas numpy scipy \
matplotlib seaborn statsmodels
Set the required environment variables before running any data collection:
export TWITTER_BEARER_TOKEN="<paste-your-bearer-token>"
export REDDIT_CLIENT_ID="<paste-your-client-id>"
export REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET="<paste-your-client-secret>"
export REDDIT_USER_AGENT="ComputationalSociologyBot/1.0"
Core Functions
1. Twitter/X Academic API v2 Data Collection
import os
import time
import tweepy
import pandas as pd
from datetime import datetime, timezone
def collect_tweets(
query: str,
start_time: str,
end_time: str,
bearer_token_env: str = "TWITTER_BEARER_TOKEN",
max_results_per_page: int = 100,
max_total: int = 5000,
include_fields: list[str] | None = None,
) -> pd.DataFrame:
"""
Collect tweets from Twitter/X Academic API v2 using tweepy paginator.
Parameters
----------
query : str
Twitter search query string (supports operators like lang:en, -is:retweet).
start_time : str
ISO 8601 start datetime, e.g. "2023-01-01T00:00:00Z".
end_time : str
ISO 8601 end datetime, e.g. "2023-12-31T23:59:59Z".
bearer_token_env : str
Name of the environment variable holding the bearer token.
max_results_per_page : int
Results per API call (10-100 for basic, up to 500 for academic).
max_total : int
Maximum total tweets to retrieve.
include_fields : list[str] | None
Extra tweet fields to request.
Returns
-------
pd.DataFrame
DataFrame with columns: id, text, created_at, author_id,
retweet_count, like_count, reply_count, lang, possibly_sensitive.
"""
bearer_token = os.environ.get(bearer_token_env)
if not bearer_token:
raise EnvironmentError(
f"Environment variable '{bearer_token_env}' is not set. "
"Obtain a bearer token from developer.twitter.com and export it."
)
client = tweepy.Client(
bearer_token=bearer_token,
wait_on_rate_limit=True,
)
tweet_fields = [
"id", "text", "created_at", "author_id", "lang",
"public_metrics", "possibly_sensitive", "entities",
"referenced_tweets",
]
if include_fields:
tweet_fields = list(set(tweet_fields + include_fields))
user_fields = [
"id", "name", "username", "created_at", "public_metrics",
"description", "verified", "location",
]
records = []
paginator = tweepy.Paginator(
client.search_all_tweets,
query=query,
start_time=start_time,
end_time=end_time,
tweet_fields=tweet_fields,
user_fields=user_fields,
expansions=["author_id"],
max_results=max_results_per_page,
)
users_lookup: dict[str, dict] = {}
for response in paginator:
if response.includes and "users" in response.includes:
for u in response.includes["users"]:
users_lookup[str(u.id)] = {
"username": u.username,
"user_created_at": u.created_at,
"followers_count": u.public_metrics.get("followers_count", 0),
"following_count": u.public_metrics.get("following_count", 0),
"tweet_count": u.public_metrics.get("tweet_count", 0),
"verified": u.verified,
}
if response.data:
for tweet in response.data:
m = tweet.public_metrics or {}
user_meta = users_lookup.get(str(tweet.author_id), {})
records.append({
"id": str(tweet.id),
"text": tweet.text,
"created_at": tweet.created_at,
"author_id": str(tweet.author_id),
"lang": tweet.lang,
"retweet_count": m.get("retweet_count", 0),
"like_count": m.get("like_count", 0),
"reply_count": m.get("reply_count", 0),
"possibly_sensitive": tweet.possibly_sensitive,
**user_meta,
})
if len(records) >= max_total:
break
time.sleep(0.5)
df = pd.DataFrame(records).drop_duplicates(subset=["id"])
df["created_at"] = pd.to_datetime(df["created_at"], utc=True)
return df.head(max_total)
def collect_reddit_posts(
subreddits: list[str],
limit_per_sub: int = 500,
sort: str = "new",
) -> pd.DataFrame:
"""
Collect posts from Reddit using PRAW.
Parameters
----------
subreddits : list[str]
List of subreddit names (without r/).
limit_per_sub : int
Maximum posts per subreddit.
sort : str
Sorting method: 'new', 'hot', 'top', 'rising'.
Returns
-------
pd.DataFrame
DataFrame with columns: id, subreddit, title, selftext, score,
num_comments, upvote_ratio, author, created_utc, url.
"""
import praw
reddit = praw.Reddit(
client_id=os.environ["REDDIT_CLIENT_ID"],
client_secret=os.environ["REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET"],
user_agent=os.environ.get("REDDIT_USER_AGENT", "ComputationalSociologyBot/1.0"),
)
records = []
for sub_name in subreddits:
subreddit = reddit.subreddit(sub_name)
fetcher = {
"new": subreddit.new,
"hot": subreddit.hot,
"top": subreddit.top,
"rising": subreddit.rising,
}.get(sort, subreddit.new)
for post in fetcher(limit=limit_per_sub):
records.append({
"id": post.id,
"subreddit": sub_name,
"title": post.title,
"selftext": post.selftext,
"score": post.score,
"num_comments": post.num_comments,
"upvote_ratio": post.upvote_ratio,
"author": str(post.author) if post.author else "[deleted]",
"created_utc": datetime.fromtimestamp(post.created_utc, tz=timezone.utc),
"url": post.url,
"is_self": post.is_self,
})
return pd.DataFrame(records)
2. Text Preprocessing and VADER Sentiment
import re
import string
from vaderSentiment.vaderSentiment import SentimentIntensityAnalyzer
def preprocess_social_text(text: str, platform: str = "twitter") -> str:
"""
Clean and normalize social media text for NLP tasks.
"""
text = text.lower()
if platform == "twitter":
text = re.sub(r"http\S+|www\.\S+", " URL ", text)
text = re.sub(r"@\w+", " USER ", text)
text = re.sub(r"#(\w+)", r" \1 ", text)
text = re.sub(r"rt\s+", "", text)
text = re.sub(r"\s+", " ", text).strip()
return text
def score_vader_sentiment(texts: list[str]) -> pd.DataFrame:
"""
Apply VADER sentiment analysis to a list of social media texts.
Returns DataFrame with compound, positive, neutral, negative scores
and a categorical sentiment label.
"""
analyzer = SentimentIntensityAnalyzer()
results = []
for text in texts:
scores = analyzer.polarity_scores(text)
label = (
"positive" if scores["compound"] >= 0.05
else "negative" if scores["compound"] <= -0.05
else "neutral"
)
results.append({**scores, "sentiment_label": label, "text": text})
return pd.DataFrame(results)
3. Bot Detection
import numpy as np
def detect_bots(
user_df: pd.DataFrame,
thresholds: dict | None = None,
) -> pd.DataFrame:
"""
Heuristic bot detection based on account-level features.
Parameters
----------
user_df : pd.DataFrame
Must contain: username, user_created_at, followers_count,
following_count, tweet_count, verified (bool),
and optionally: avg_daily_tweets, unique_hashtag_ratio,
url_ratio, description_length.
thresholds : dict | None
Override default heuristic thresholds.
Returns
-------
pd.DataFrame
Original DataFrame with added columns: bot_score (0–1),
bot_flag (bool), and individual heuristic flags.
"""
defaults = {
"min_account_age_days": 30,
"max_follower_following_ratio": 0.05, # very few followers vs following
"max_daily_tweets": 72, # more than 3/hr on average
"min_content_diversity": 0.1, # unique hashtag ratio
"min_description_length": 10,
}
if thresholds:
defaults.update(thresholds)
df = user_df.copy()
now = pd.Timestamp.now(tz="UTC")
# Account age
df["user_created_at"] = pd.to_datetime(df["user_created_at"], utc=True)
df["account_age_days"] = (now - df["user_created_at"]).dt.days
df["flag_new_account"] = df["account_age_days"] < defaults["min_account_age_days"]
# Follower/following ratio
df["follower_ratio"] = df["followers_count"] / (df["following_count"] + 1)
df["flag_low_follower_ratio"] = df["follower_ratio"] < defaults["max_follower_following_ratio"]
# Posting frequency
if "avg_daily_tweets" not in df.columns:
df["avg_daily_tweets"] = df["tweet_count"] / (df["account_age_days"] + 1)
df["flag_high_frequency"] = df["avg_daily_tweets"] > defaults["max_daily_tweets"]
# Content diversity
if "unique_hashtag_ratio" in df.columns:
df["flag_low_diversity"] = df["unique_hashtag_ratio"] < defaults["min_content_diversity"]
else:
df["flag_low_diversity"] = False
# Missing description
if "description_length" in df.columns:
df["flag_no_description"] = df["description_length"] < defaults["min_description_length"]
else:
df["flag_no_description"] = False
# Verified accounts are very unlikely to be bots
flag_cols = [
"flag_new_account", "flag_low_follower_ratio",
"flag_high_frequency", "flag_low_diversity", "flag_no_description",
]
df["bot_score"] = df[flag_cols].sum(axis=1) / len(flag_cols)
df.loc[df["verified"] == True, "bot_score"] = 0.0
df["bot_flag"] = df["bot_score"] >= 0.6
return df
4. Network Homophily and Echo Chambers
import networkx as nx
from scipy import stats
def measure_homophily(G: nx.Graph, attribute: str) -> dict:
"""
Measure homophily in a social network using assortativity coefficient.
Parameters
----------
G : nx.Graph
NetworkX graph with node attribute `attribute` set on each node.
attribute : str
Node attribute name (e.g., 'party', 'ideology_bin').
Returns
-------
dict
Dictionary with assortativity_coefficient (r), p_value (approximate
via permutation), and a homophily_label string.
"""
r = nx.attribute_assortativity_coefficient(G, attribute)
# Permutation test: shuffle attributes, recompute
attrs = [G.nodes[n][attribute] for n in G.nodes()]
n_perms = 1000
null_dist = []
nodes = list(G.nodes())
for _ in range(n_perms):
shuffled = dict(zip(nodes, np.random.permutation(attrs)))
H = G.copy()
nx.set_node_attributes(H, shuffled, attribute)
null_dist.append(nx.attribute_assortativity_coefficient(H, attribute))
p_value = np.mean(np.array(null_dist) >= r)
label = (
"strong homophily" if r > 0.3
else "moderate homophily" if r > 0.1
else "no meaningful homophily" if r >= -0.1
else "heterophily"
)
return {
"assortativity_coefficient": r,
"p_value": p_value,
"homophily_label": label,
"n_nodes": G.number_of_nodes(),
"n_edges": G.number_of_edges(),
}
def echo_chamber_score(
G: nx.Graph,
opinion_col: str,
n_walks: int = 1000,
walk_length: int = 20,
seed: int = 42,
) -> dict:
"""
Estimate echo chamber strength via random-walk-based segregation score.
A random walker starting from a node with opinion X is more likely to
stay in opinion-X neighborhoods in a segregated (echo chamber) network.
Score ranges from 0 (fully integrated) to 1 (fully segregated).
Parameters
----------
G : nx.Graph
Graph with node attribute `opinion_col` set (binary or categorical).
opinion_col : str
Node attribute name containing opinion/ideology labels.
n_walks : int
Number of random walks to simulate.
walk_length : int
Steps per random walk.
seed : int
Random seed for reproducibility.
Returns
-------
dict
segregation_score, within_group_stay_rate, between_group_cross_rate.
"""
rng = np.random.default_rng(seed)
nodes = list(G.nodes())
opinions = nx.get_node_attributes(G, opinion_col)
unique_ops = list(set(opinions.values()))
within_stays = 0
total_steps = 0
for _ in range(n_walks):
start = rng.choice(nodes)
current = start
start_opinion = opinions.get(current)
for _ in range(walk_length):
neighbors = list(G.neighbors(current))
if not neighbors:
break
nxt = rng.choice(neighbors)
total_steps += 1
if opinions.get(nxt) == start_opinion:
within_stays += 1
current = nxt
if total_steps == 0:
return {"segregation_score": 0.0, "within_group_stay_rate": 0.0}
within_rate = within_stays / total_steps
# Baseline: expected within-group rate under random mixing
opinion_counts = pd.Series(list(opinions.values())).value_counts(normalize=True)
baseline = (opinion_counts**2).sum()
segregation_score = (within_rate - float(baseline)) / (1.0 - float(baseline) + 1e-9)
segregation_score = float(np.clip(segregation_score, 0.0, 1.0))
return {
"segregation_score": segregation_score,
"within_group_stay_rate": within_rate,
"baseline_random_mixing": float(baseline),
"n_walks": n_walks,
"walk_length": walk_length,
}
5. Conjoint Survey Experiment Analysis
import statsmodels.formula.api as smf
from itertools import combinations
def analyze_conjoint_amce(
df: pd.DataFrame,
outcome: str,
treatment_cols: list[str],
respondent_id_col: str = "respondent_id",
profile_id_col: str = "profile_id",
weights_col: str | None = None,
) -> pd.DataFrame:
"""
Compute Average Marginal Component Effects (AMCEs) for a conjoint experiment.
AMCEs measure the average effect of each attribute level (relative to a
baseline) on the probability of choosing a profile, marginalizing over
all other attribute combinations.
Parameters
----------
df : pd.DataFrame
Long-format data: one row per profile shown to a respondent.
Must contain `outcome` (0/1 choice), treatment columns, and IDs.
outcome : str
Binary outcome column (1 = chosen, 0 = not chosen).
treatment_cols : list[str]
List of conjoint attribute column names.
respondent_id_col : str
Column identifying unique respondents (used for clustering SEs).
profile_id_col : str
Column identifying profiles within a task.
weights_col : str | None
Optional survey weight column.
Returns
-------
pd.DataFrame
AMCE table with columns: attribute, level, amce, std_error,
ci_lower, ci_upper, p_value, baseline_level.
"""
results = []
for col in treatment_cols:
# Ensure string/categorical
df[col] = df[col].astype(str)
levels = sorted(df[col].unique())
baseline = levels[0]
# Dummy encode relative to baseline
dummies = pd.get_dummies(df[col], prefix=col, drop_first=False)
baseline_col = f"{col}_{baseline}"
dummy_cols = [c for c in dummies.columns if c != baseline_col]
temp_df = pd.concat([df[[outcome, respondent_id_col]], dummies[dummy_cols]], axis=1)
formula = f"{outcome} ~ " + " + ".join(dummy_cols)
try:
if weights_col and weights_col in df.columns:
model = smf.wls(
formula, data=temp_df, weights=df[weights_col]
).fit(
cov_type="cluster",
cov_kwds={"groups": temp_df[respondent_id_col]},
)
else:
model = smf.ols(formula, data=temp_df).fit(
cov_type="cluster",
cov_kwds={"groups": temp_df[respondent_id_col]},
)
for level in levels[1:]:
param_name = f"{col}_{level}"
if param_name in model.params:
coef = model.params[param_name]
se = model.bse[param_name]
ci = model.conf_int().loc[param_name]
pval = model.pvalues[param_name]
results.append({
"attribute": col,
"level": level,
"baseline_level": baseline,
"amce": coef,
"std_error": se,
"ci_lower": ci[0],
"ci_upper": ci[1],
"p_value": pval,
})
except Exception as e:
print(f"Warning: could not fit model for attribute '{col}': {e}")
return pd.DataFrame(results)
def compute_marginal_means(
df: pd.DataFrame,
outcome: str,
attribute: str,
) -> pd.DataFrame:
"""
Compute marginal means for a conjoint attribute.
Marginal means are the average outcome for each level, averaging over
all other attribute combinations.
"""
df = df.copy()
df[attribute] = df[attribute].astype(str)
mm = (
df.groupby(attribute)[outcome]
.agg(["mean", "sem", "count"])
.reset_index()
.rename(columns={"mean": "marginal_mean", "sem": "std_error", "count": "n"})
)
mm["ci_lower"] = mm["marginal_mean"] - 1.96 * mm["std_error"]
mm["ci_upper"] = mm["marginal_mean"] + 1.96 * mm["std_error"]
return mm
Example 1: Ideological Polarization in a Political Twitter Network
This example collects tweets about a political topic, infers ideology from retweet networks, and measures homophily and echo chamber strength.
import os
import pandas as pd
import networkx as nx
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.colors as mcolors
# ------------------------------------------------------------------
# Step 1: Collect tweets
# ------------------------------------------------------------------
query = (
"(#BidenBudget OR #TrumpTax) lang:en -is:retweet "
"has:mentions -is:nullcast"
)
tweets_df = collect_tweets(
query=query,
start_time="2024-01-01T00:00:00Z",
end_time="2024-03-01T00:00:00Z",
bearer_token_env="TWITTER_BEARER_TOKEN",
max_total=3000,
)
print(f"Collected {len(tweets_df)} tweets from {tweets_df['author_id'].nunique()} users")
# ------------------------------------------------------------------
# Step 2: Sentiment analysis
# ------------------------------------------------------------------
tweets_df["clean_text"] = tweets_df["text"].apply(
lambda t: preprocess_social_text(t, platform="twitter")
)
sentiment_df = score_vader_sentiment(tweets_df["clean_text"].tolist())
tweets_df = pd.concat(
[tweets_df.reset_index(drop=True), sentiment_df[["compound", "sentiment_label"]]], axis=1
)
# ------------------------------------------------------------------
# Step 3: Bot filtering
# ------------------------------------------------------------------
user_cols = [
"author_id", "username", "user_created_at",
"followers_count", "following_count", "tweet_count", "verified",
]
user_df = tweets_df[user_cols].drop_duplicates("author_id").copy()
user_df = detect_bots(user_df)
human_ids = set(user_df.loc[~user_df["bot_flag"], "author_id"])
tweets_clean = tweets_df[tweets_df["author_id"].isin(human_ids)].copy()
print(f"After bot removal: {len(tweets_clean)} tweets from {len(human_ids)} users")
# ------------------------------------------------------------------
# Step 4: Build retweet network and assign ideology from hashtags
# ------------------------------------------------------------------
G = nx.DiGraph()
ideology_map: dict[str, str] = {}
LEFT_HASHTAGS = {"bidenbullet", "democraticparty", "progressives", "vote blue"}
RIGHT_HASHTAGS = {"trumptax", "maga", "republicanparty", "freemarket"}
for _, row in tweets_clean.iterrows():
text_lower = row["clean_text"]
if any(h in text_lower for h in LEFT_HASHTAGS):
ideology_map[row["author_id"]] = "left"
elif any(h in text_lower for h in RIGHT_HASHTAGS):
ideology_map[row["author_id"]] = "right"
# Add nodes with ideology attribute
for uid, ideology in ideology_map.items():
G.add_node(uid, ideology=ideology)
# Simulate edges: co-mention connections (simplified)
for _, row in tweets_clean.iterrows():
src = row["author_id"]
if src in ideology_map and row["retweet_count"] > 0:
G.add_node(src, ideology=ideology_map.get(src, "unknown"))
# For demonstration, create edges from users who share tweets
user_list = list(ideology_map.keys())
for i, u in enumerate(user_list[:200]):
for v in user_list[i+1:min(i+5, len(user_list))]:
if ideology_map.get(u) == ideology_map.get(v):
G.add_edge(u, v)
elif pd.Series([1]).sample().item() > 0.7: # sparse cross-links
G.add_edge(u, v)
G_undirected = G.to_undirected()
# ------------------------------------------------------------------
# Step 5: Measure homophily and echo chambers
# ------------------------------------------------------------------
homophily = measure_homophily(G_undirected, attribute="ideology")
echo = echo_chamber_score(G_undirected, opinion_col="ideology", n_walks=2000)
print("\n=== Ideological Network Analysis ===")
print(f"Assortativity (homophily r): {homophily['assortativity_coefficient']:.3f}")
print(f"Homophily label: {homophily['homophily_label']}")
print(f"Permutation p-value: {homophily['p_value']:.4f}")
print(f"Echo chamber segregation score: {echo['segregation_score']:.3f}")
print(f"Within-group stay rate: {echo['within_group_stay_rate']:.3f}")
print(f"Baseline (random mixing): {echo['baseline_random_mixing']:.3f}")
# ------------------------------------------------------------------
# Step 6: Visualize
# ------------------------------------------------------------------
fig, axes = plt.subplots(1, 2, figsize=(14, 6))
color_map = {"left": "#1f77b4", "right": "#d62728", "unknown": "#aec7e8"}
node_colors = [color_map.get(G_undirected.nodes[n].get("ideology", "unknown"), "grey")
for n in G_undirected.nodes()]
pos = nx.spring_layout(G_undirected, seed=42, k=0.3)
nx.draw_networkx(
G_undirected, pos, ax=axes[0],
node_color=node_colors, node_size=30,
edge_color="grey", alpha=0.6, with_labels=False,
)
axes[0].set_title(
f"Political Retweet Network\nr={homophily['assortativity_coefficient']:.2f}, "
f"echo={echo['segregation_score']:.2f}"
)
axes[0].axis("off")
sent_counts = tweets_clean["sentiment_label"].value_counts()
axes[1].bar(sent_counts.index, sent_counts.values,
color=["#2ca02c", "#d62728", "#7f7f7f"])
axes[1].set_title("Tweet Sentiment Distribution")
axes[1].set_ylabel("Count")
plt.tight_layout()
plt.savefig("political_network_analysis.png", dpi=150, bbox_inches="tight")
plt.show()
Example 2: Conjoint Analysis of Housing Preferences
This example analyzes a conjoint experiment measuring how race, income level, and neighborhood density affect housing preference decisions.
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
np.random.seed(2024)
# ------------------------------------------------------------------
# Simulate conjoint survey data
# (In practice, load from Qualtrics/SurveyMonkey export)
# ------------------------------------------------------------------
n_respondents = 800
n_tasks = 5
n_profiles_per_task = 2
races = ["White", "Black", "Hispanic", "Asian"]
incomes = ["Low (<$40k)", "Middle ($40k-$100k)", "High (>$100k)"]
densities = ["Suburban", "Urban High-Rise", "Rural"]
green_spaces = ["None", "Park within 1 mile", "Park on block"]
records = []
respondent_ids = range(1, n_respondents + 1)
for resp_id in respondent_ids:
for task in range(1, n_tasks + 1):
for profile in range(1, n_profiles_per_task + 1):
race = np.random.choice(races)
income = np.random.choice(incomes)
density = np.random.choice(densities)
green = np.random.choice(green_spaces)
# Simulate choice with known AMCEs for testing
latent = (
0.0 # intercept
+ (0.15 if race == "White" else 0.0)
- (0.10 if race == "Black" else 0.0)
+ (0.20 if income == "High (>$100k)" else 0.0)
- (0.08 if income == "Low (<$40k)" else 0.0)
- (0.12 if density == "Urban High-Rise" else 0.0)
+ (0.10 if green == "Park on block" else 0.0)
+ np.random.logistic(0, 0.3)
)
records.append({
"respondent_id": resp_id,
"task_id": task,
"profile_id": profile,
"race_neighbor": race,
"income_level": income,
"density": density,
"green_space": green,
"chosen": 1 if latent > 0 else 0,
"weight": np.random.uniform(0.8, 1.2),
})
conjoint_df = pd.DataFrame(records)
print(f"Conjoint dataset: {len(conjoint_df)} rows, "
f"{conjoint_df['respondent_id'].nunique()} respondents")
# ------------------------------------------------------------------
# Compute AMCEs
# ------------------------------------------------------------------
treatment_attributes = ["race_neighbor", "income_level", "density", "green_space"]
amce_results = analyze_conjoint_amce(
df=conjoint_df,
outcome="chosen",
treatment_cols=treatment_attributes,
respondent_id_col="respondent_id",
weights_col="weight",
)
print("\n=== AMCE Results: Housing Preference Conjoint ===")
print(amce_results.to_string(index=False, float_format="{:.3f}".format))
# ------------------------------------------------------------------
# Compute marginal means for race attribute
# ------------------------------------------------------------------
mm_race = compute_marginal_means(conjoint_df, outcome="chosen", attribute="race_neighbor")
print("\n=== Marginal Means: Race of Neighbor ===")
print(mm_race.to_string(index=False, float_format="{:.3f}".format))
# ------------------------------------------------------------------
# Visualize AMCE plot (forest plot style)
# ------------------------------------------------------------------
fig, axes = plt.subplots(1, len(treatment_attributes), figsize=(16, 6), sharey=False)
attr_colors = {
"race_neighbor": "#1f77b4",
"income_level": "#ff7f0e",
"density": "#2ca02c",
"green_space": "#9467bd",
}
for ax, attr in zip(axes, treatment_attributes):
sub = amce_results[amce_results["attribute"] == attr].copy()
sub = sub.sort_values("amce")
y_pos = range(len(sub))
ax.barh(
y_pos,
sub["amce"],
xerr=[sub["amce"] - sub["ci_lower"], sub["ci_upper"] - sub["amce"]],
color=attr_colors.get(attr, "steelblue"),
alpha=0.75,
capsize=4,
height=0.5,
)
ax.axvline(0, color="black", linewidth=0.8, linestyle="--")
ax.set_yticks(list(y_pos))
ax.set_yticklabels(sub["level"].tolist(), fontsize=8)
ax.set_xlabel("AMCE (Δ Pr(chosen))", fontsize=9)
ax.set_title(attr.replace("_", " ").title(), fontsize=10, fontweight="bold")
ax.grid(axis="x", alpha=0.3)
plt.suptitle(
"AMCEs: Housing Preference Conjoint Experiment\n"
"(Baseline: Asian | Low income | Suburban | No green space)",
fontsize=11,
)
plt.tight_layout()
plt.savefig("housing_conjoint_amce.png", dpi=150, bbox_inches="tight")
plt.show()
Notes and Best Practices
- Rate limits: Twitter Academic API allows 500 requests/15 min. Use
wait_on_rate_limit=Truein tweepy. - PRAW rate limits: Reddit allows ~60 requests/minute for read-only access. PRAW handles this automatically.
- Bot detection: Heuristic rules have ~70-80% accuracy. For production, consider Botometer API.
- Homophily vs. selection: Assortativity does not prove causal homophily; control for confounders (geography, topic).
- Conjoint validity: Ensure profiles are independently randomized; check for profile-order effects via task-position covariates.
- Ethics: Do not collect or publish individual-level data without IRB approval. Anonymize user IDs before sharing.
- VADER limitations: VADER works best on short English social media text; consider fine-tuned BERT models for other languages.