Gender Asymmetries in Reality and Fiction:The Bechdel Test of Social Media

David Garcıa

Ingmar Weber, and Kiran Garimella

Chair of Systems Designwww.sg.ethz.ch

Chair of Systems Design at ETH Zurich

Main Research AreasAdaptive Social Systems: Online communities, animal societies...Economic Networks: Ownership, R&D, financial networks, ...

Methodological approach: Data Driven Modeling

Digital traces: Written interaction, online social networksComputational modeling: Agent-based modeling, network dynamics

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 2 / 21

Subconscious components of gender inequality

Macroscopic social phenomena canemerge from subtle, subconscious biases

Example: Urban segregation

Culturomics

Quantitative understanding of culturethrough computational processing of text

Two sources to measure gender bias:movie scripts and online interaction

1 Movie industry shows a male bias

2 Gender bias is absent in online interaction

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 3 / 21

Subconscious components of gender inequality

Macroscopic social phenomena canemerge from subtle, subconscious biases

Example: Urban segregation

Culturomics

Quantitative understanding of culturethrough computational processing of text

Two sources to measure gender bias:movie scripts and online interaction

1 Movie industry shows a male bias

2 Gender bias is absent in online interaction

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 3 / 21

Social gender scripts

Behavioral script (Bower et al. 1979)

Patterned social arrangements that areboth emergent from and determinant ofthe actions of the individuals.

Objective: Quantifying gender biases in behavioral scripts

1 Imagined scripts: Computational processing of movies

2 Real scripts: Online dialogues between individuals

3 And beyond: Movie impact, demographics of gender bias...

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 4 / 21

Testing gender asymmetry

The Bechdel Test for Movies

A movie passes the test if:

1 It has two female characters

2 Who talk to each other

3 About something besides a man

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 5 / 21

Testing gender asymmetry

The Bechdel Test for Movies

A movie passes the test if:

1 It has two female characters

2 Who talk to each other

3 About something besides a man

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 5 / 21

Testing gender asymmetry

The Bechdel Test for Movies

A movie passes the test if:

1 It has two female characters

2 Who talk to each other

3 About something besides a man

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 5 / 21

Testing gender asymmetry

The Bechdel Test for Movies

A movie passes the test if:

1 It has two female characters

2 Who talk to each other

3 About something besides a man

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 5 / 21

Testing gender asymmetry

The Bechdel Test for Movies

A movie passes the test if:

1 It has two female characters

2 Who talk to each other

3 About something besides a man

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 6 / 21

Testing gender asymmetry

The Bechdel Test for Movies

A movie passes the test if:

1 It has two female characters

2 Who talk to each other

3 About something besides a man

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 6 / 21

Testing gender asymmetry

The Bechdel Test for Movies

A movie passes the test if:

1 It has two female characters

2 Who talk to each other

3 About something besides a man

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 6 / 21

Testing gender asymmetry

The Bechdel Test for Movies

A movie passes the test if:

1 It has two female characters

2 Who talk to each other

3 About something besides a man

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 6 / 21

Testing gender asymmetry

The Bechdel Test for Movies

A movie passes the test if:

1 It has two female characters

2 Who talk to each other

3 About something besides a man

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 6 / 21

Computational analysis of movie scripts

IMSDb DialogueProcessing

IMDbCharacter

data

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 7 / 21

Computational Analysis of Movie Scripts

IMSDb DialogueProcessing

fixer

princess leia

camie

imperial officer

chief jawared three

ben obiwan kenobi

biggs

c3po

stormtrooper

greedo

red six

commander 1

han solo

death star gunner

red leader

gold leader

general dodonna

darth vader

aunt beru

gold two

woman

jawa

officer cass

massassi base rebel scout

wedge

cantina voices

general motti

uncle owenluke skywalker

grand moff tarkin

gold fivegeneral willard

takeel

IMDbCharacter

data

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 8 / 21

Computational Analysis of Movie Scripts

IMSDb DialogueProcessing

fixer

princess leia

camie

imperial officer

chief jawared three

ben obiwan kenobi

biggs

c3po

stormtrooper

greedo

red six

commander 1

han solo

death star gunner

red leader

gold leader

general dodonna

darth vader

aunt beru

gold two

woman

jawa

officer cass

massassi base rebel scout

wedge

cantina voices

general motti

uncle owenluke skywalker

grand moff tarkin

gold fivegeneral willard

takeel

IMDbCharacter

data

Female Bechdel Score

|D(F, F, 0, ∗)||D|B =_

F

Male Bechdel Score

|D(M, M,∗,0)||D|B =_

M

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 9 / 21

Movie script network examples

Star Wars: A new hope (1977)

general motti

chief jawa

general willard

aunt beru

grand moff tarkin

fixer

stormtrooper

princess leia

luke skywalker

general dodonna

han solo

death star gunner

greedo woman

red three

officer cass

uncle owen

c3po

takeelimperial officer

red leader

commander 1

ben obiwan kenobi

biggs

red six

camie

jawadarth vader

gold leader

cantina voices

wedge

Male Bechdel score: 16.3%

Female Bechdel score: 0%

Mulholland Drive (2001)

linney james

nicki pelazza

irene

robert smith

waitress at winkies diane

joe messing

vincent darby

ray hott

gene

luigi castigliani

dan

cornell dumontfirst cab driver

receptionist

detective harry mcknight

paramount guardsergeant baxter

lorraine kesher

kenny

adam kesher

mr roquevoices

ed

espresso man

detective neal domgaard

catherine coco lenoix

mrs lanois

rita

young actor

louise bonner

carol

jimmy katz

woman in 12

valet attendant

cookie park hotel manager

betty elms

jason

billy deznutz

vincenzo castigliane

laney

cowboy

wally brown

limo driver

herb

cynthia jenzen

hank

bob brooker

Male Bechdel score: 4.9%

Female Bechdel score: 16.6%

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 10 / 21

The male bias of movies

0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30

0.00

0.10

0.20

0.30

Male Bechdel score

FemaleBechdelscore

Num

bero

fmov

ies

Bechdel score

Male Bechdel scoreFemale Bechdel score

0.0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4

050

100

150

The Bechdel score is consistent with bechdeltest.com ratings

Evidence for the existence of a male bias in movie industry

YouTube trailers of movies that do not pass have more views and likes

Movies that pass are more likely to be shared in Twitter by women

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 11 / 21

Gender in social media dialogues

@derp LMAO I loveJustin Bieber XXXX

@durr I can hascheezburguer?

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 12 / 21

Gender in social media dialogues

DialogueProcessing

@derp LMAO I loveJustin Bieber XXXX

@durr I can hascheezburguer?

Twitter: 2.2MMySpace: 3K

Time

User 1

User 2

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 13 / 21

Gender in social media dialogues

DialogueProcessing

ProfileProcessing

@derp LMAO I loveJustin Bieber XXXX

@durr I can hascheezburguer?

Twitter: 2.2MMySpace: 3K

- Location (US)- Gender- Student?- Parent?

Time

User 1

User 2

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 14 / 21

Gender in social media dialogues

DialogueProcessing

Male Score

FemaleScore

fixer

princess leia

camie

imperial officer

chief jawared three

ben obiwan kenobi

biggs

c3po

stormtrooper

greedo

red six

commander 1

han solo

death star gunner

red leader

gold leader

general dodonna

darth vader

aunt beru

gold two

woman

jawa

officer cass

massassi base rebel scout

wedge

cantina voices

general motti

uncle owenluke skywalker

grand moff tarkin

gold fivegeneral willard

takeel

ProfileProcessing

@derp LMAO I loveJustin Bieber XXXX

@durr I can hascheezburguer?

Twitter: 2.2MMySpace: 3K

- Location (US)- Gender- Student?- Parent?

Time

User 1

User 2

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 15 / 21

Gender bias in online interaction

MySpace

TwitterMovies

Movies

0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3

0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

Male Bechdel score

Fem

ale

Bec

hdel

scor

e

(pass)

(not pass)

MySpace shows no asymmetry

Twitter is closer to movies that donot pass the test

Interactions between Twitterusers from Ann Arbor

BM = 36%, BF = 6%

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 16 / 21

Gender bias in online interaction

MySpace

TwitterMovies

Movies

0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3

0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

Male Bechdel score

Fem

ale

Bec

hdel

scor

e

(pass)

(not pass)

MySpace shows no asymmetry

Twitter is closer to movies that donot pass the test

Interactions between Twitterusers from Ann Arbor

BM = 36%, BF = 6%

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 16 / 21

Calculating representative bias

Ecological validity of Bechdel score?

64% of Twitter users are male∼ 49% male population in US

Solution: normalization overgender-aligned dialogues

IF =|D(F ,F , 0, ∗)||D(F ,F , ∗, ∗)|

IM =|D(M,M, ∗, 0)||D(M,M, ∗, ∗)|

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8 MySpace (UK)

MySpace (US)Twitter (US)

Female MaleGenderIndependence

Twitter male bias is significant when controlling forunequal gender samples

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 17 / 21

Demographic factors

Parent Not Parent Parent Not Parent

0.60

0.70

0.80

0.90

Gen

derI

ndep

ende

nce

MaleFem ale

0.04 (p<10 )-3

MaleFem ale

0.039 (p=0.028)

Stud. Not Stud. Stud. Not Stud.

0.60

0.70

0.80

0.90

0.18 (p<10 )-4

Urban Rural Urban Rural

MaleFem ale

0.60

0.70

0.80

0.90

Gen

derI

ndep

ende

nce

0.072 (p<10 )-15

0.01 (p<10 )-15 Dialogs between fathers tend to mention

women less...

No significant asymmetry for students

Female independence lower in rural areas

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 18 / 21

Geographic and cultural factors

Disposable male theory

Human cultures evolved into patterns ofindependent and risk-seeking males as aresponse to adverse conditions

Male Independence

0.73

0.85 Correlation analysis between stategender independence and latitudeControls: long., avg. income, Gini

Male Independece score inTwitter increases with latitude

Female Independence scoredecreases with average income

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 19 / 21

Geographic and cultural factors

Disposable male theory

Human cultures evolved into patterns ofindependent and risk-seeking males as aresponse to adverse conditions

Male Independence

0.73

0.85 Correlation analysis between stategender independence and latitudeControls: long., avg. income, Gini

Male Independece score inTwitter increases with latitude

Female Independence scoredecreases with average income

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 19 / 21

Summary

We designed a computational extension of the Bechdel test

We integrated data from Twitter, MySpace, YouTube,bechdeltest.com, IMDB, IMSDB

We processed 490 movie scriptsMore than 2M conversations from Twitter and MySpace

Twitter shows a male bias, but not MySpace

Demographic and geographic factors in gender asymmetries

Conclusion

The male bias of movie industry is not a fantasy

Twitter is not the Cyberfeminst utopia

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 20 / 21

Summary

We designed a computational extension of the Bechdel test

We integrated data from Twitter, MySpace, YouTube,bechdeltest.com, IMDB, IMSDB

We processed 490 movie scriptsMore than 2M conversations from Twitter and MySpace

Twitter shows a male bias, but not MySpace

Demographic and geographic factors in gender asymmetries

Conclusion

The male bias of movie industry is not a fantasy

Twitter is not the Cyberfeminst utopia

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 20 / 21

Thank you!

Chair of Systems Design The Bechdel Test of Social Mediawww.sg.ethz.ch David Garcıa ICWSM’14 Ann Arbor June 2nd, 2014 21 / 21