Measuring the Intensity of Opinion the Way People Express It
People express intensity of their opinions in two ways: by choosing words and by either expressing facts or describing actions.
For example, the word “terrific” expresses a stronger positive sentiment than “good”. Words, therefore, are a giveaway, although some cases are not as straightforward as others. We believe that once the types of words that can express opinion have been identified, it is possible to assign to each such word a measure of sentiment that an average person would associate with it. We have done exactly this, by taking a large body of texts, giving them to real people to grade, and using a mathematical model to assign to each word, a measure of opinion which would ensure the highest possible similarity between human and machine grading of these and similar texts.
Additionally, expression of facts can also play a role in shaping the opinion of a reader. Or instance, the sentence “The product didn’t work” does not express an opinion, but still plays a role in shaping opinion. Likewise, “President Castro underwent dialysis three times yesterday” does not express an opinion, but certainly plays a role in shaping our perception of Mr. Castro’s health.
Our technology allows both types of sentiment shaping sentences to be evaluated.