How to spot Christians and Atheists on Twitter.

Photo: flickr/wiselywovenIf you've ever wanted to tell whether someone is a Christian or an Atheist just by reading their Twitter feed, you're in luck. In this study, the researchers analyzed nearly 2 million tweets from Christians and Atheists. To identify the groups, they chose people who followed noted Christian or Atheist public figures: "The five Christian public figures were Pope Benedict XVI (@PopeBXVI), Dinesh D’Souza (@DineshDSouza), Joyce Meyer (@JoyceMeyer), Joel Osteen (@JoelOsteen), and Rick Warren (@RickWarren). The five atheist public figures were Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins), Sam Harris (@SamHarrisOrg), Christopher Hitchens (@ChrisHitchens), Monica Salcedo (@Monicks), and Michael Shermer (@MichaelShermer)." The researchers then did textual analyses of tweets from the two groups. They found that "Christians express more happiness than atheists in everyday language... [and]...were more likely to mention social processes that suggest stronger relationships and support networks. Simultaneously, atheists were more likely to use 'insight' words (e.g., 'think,' 'reason') that in ...