Event Details

Join us for Security Lancasters September Seminar Series as we welcome Dr Ryan Boyd, Lecturer at Lancaster University, as he discusses his research: Verbal Behavior - Using Language Analysis to Capture Core Social and Psychological Processes

Dr Ryan Boyd is a Lecturer in Behavioral Analytics at Lancaster University. Ryan joins our seminar to discuss the utility of current methods in computerized text analysis for the social sciences, his recent research on the psychology of language, and future directions for social scientists who seek to use verbal behavior to explore the depths of core psychological processes.

Long before Psychology was formalized into a field of study, scholars have believed that a person's words are tightly interlinked with their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. For over 50 years, researchers have been developing computational approaches to quantifying samples of natural language to better understand people's psychology. With the evolution of both computational power and psychological theory, new frameworks have recently emerged that allow us to approach verbal behavior in a manner that is more rigorous and scientific than ever before.

Biography:

Dr Ryan Boyd is a Lecturer in Behavioral Analytics at Lancaster University. His work primarily focuses on the relationship between verbal behavior, personality, and motives -- trying to understand how a person's words can reveal insights into why people do what they do. Dr Boyd has applied his research to various domains, including, human sexual behavior, misinformation campaigns, political ideology. He is currently on the editorial boards for PLOS ONE and Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and is the developer of several widely-used, open source text analysis programs.

The Seminar Series is open to all, free to attend and requires registration. Please feel free to come along and meet with Dr Boyd after with tea, coffee and biscuits.

Please register for free on Eventbrite HERE.

For additional queries, please email securitylancaster@lancaster.ac.uk