The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
2017 by The University of Chicago
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Published 2017.
Printed in the United States of America
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ISBN-13: 978-0-226-45584-6 (cloth)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-45598-3 (paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-45603-4 (e-book)
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226456034.001.0001
LCCN: 2016048672
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).
Acknowledgments
It is often the case in science that the best and most novel avenues of inquiry arise by accident. This project counts itself among the works (of all qualities) that have emerged in this venerable tradition. While completing another project, two of us (Ramey and Klingler) were sipping Turkish coffee in Toulouse, France, on a fine autumn day. Klingler was conveying with great excitement his recent forays into the voluminous and fascinating literature on personality and decision-making. Ramey was equally excited about his own recent explorations in the area of quantitative text analysis. In the midst of this exchange, an idea was born from a simple question: could we measure theoretically relevant personality traits of individuals using text? We gambled that the answer was yes. Ramey and Klingler then set up a Skype call with Hollibaugh to see if (a) he thought they were crazy, and (b) if he was willing to forgo another joint project and instead pursue this idea. While he was not (and still is not) fully willing to give Ramey and Klingler a pass on the insanity question, Hollibaugh nevertheless rolled the dice on the project.
In the years since, we have worked tirelessly toward a monumental goalbridging the diverse literatures on personality, political institutions, and quantitative text analysis. Though much of that time was spent penning this manuscript, a nontrivial time was spent evangelizing our new set of ideas. Both tasks have been challenging, and without the support of those closest to us and this enterprise the final product would not have been possible. It is thus fitting that we begin by acknowledging those who have played significant roles in the development, growth, and maturation of this project.
Much of this book was written in unlikely locations. When together, we rarely sat in an office, typing away. Rather, much of our time fleshing out and executing the ideas expressed in this project was done in cafs, restaurants, cigar rooms, and the like. While it is impossible to give a full account of all such places, we give special thanks to the staff and management at those establishments where we took up significant table space over the course of our endeavor. In Toulouse, we thank the staff of La Rose de Sables, Ras La Tasse, and Al Diwan for a nearly endless supply of caffeine, sandwiches, raisin et menthe, and impeccable service. We offer particular recognition to Ras La Tasse for providing great air-conditioning during the canicule of summer 2015, and Al Diwan for providing us with a comfortable and productive spot to work during the night hours of the same visit. The final push on this book (as well as two articles written almost entirely at those locations) would have been stymied without them. In Abu Dhabi, the location of the largest number of joint visits, we thank the staffs of Tarbouche, the Marina al Bateen Lebanese restaurant (where many of our original ideas were formed), and Almaz by Momo. The constant supply of Turkish coffee and delicious food cannot be overlooked. In Chicago, we thank the staff at Iwan Ries & Co. for providing us with fine cigars and a comfortable spot to work mere steps away from the Palmer House Hilton. Last, we thank the entire staff at Nat Shermans in New York. The last push of this project was facilitated by their excellent Wi-Fi, impeccable ambiance, and unrivaled cigars.
On the academic front, we thank those who have taken the time to read the manuscript (or patiently listen to us ramble on about it) and provide us with constructive feedback. These individuals include David Austen-Smith, Ken Benoit, Matt Blackwell, Richard Bonneau, Sean Bottomley, Sam Bowles, Dave Campbell, Charlotte Cavaille, Chris Chabris, Tyson Chatagnier, Heidi Colleran, Carsten de Dreu, Erik Dickson, Drew Dimmery, Conor Dowling, Ray Duch, Dominik Duell, Andy Eggers, Armin Falk, David Gelman, Michael Gibilisco, Michael Gill, Justin Grimmer, Mike Gurven, Matt Hall, Andy Harris, Pablo Hernandez-Lagos, Marc Hetherington, Astrid Hopfensitz, John Jost, Bethany Lacina, Geoff Layman, Daniel Magleby, Cesar Mantilla, Michael McDonald, Slava Mihkaylov, Jeff Mondak, Rebecca Morton, Jonathan Nagler, Tommaso Nannicini, David Nickerson, Bruce Oppenheimer, Elena Panova, John Patty, Michael Peress, Dave Primo, Ben Radcliff, Jason Reifler, Molly Roberts, Larry Rothenberg, Paul Seabright, Maya Sen, Jo Silvester, James Snyder, Arthur Spirling, Jonathan Stieglitz, Jean Tirole, Josh Tucker, Karine van der Straeten, Yannis Vassiliadis, Erik Voeten, Christina Wolbrecht, Elisabeth Wood, Jon Woon, Hye Young You, and many others. This list is long, mostly because of the many visiting scholars at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, whose early and continuing feedback allowed this project to take root and develop. Additionally, we received helpful critiques on different parts of the manuscript from seminar participants at Binghamton University, Columbia University, New York University, Northwestern University, the University of Notre Dame, the University of Rochester, and Vanderbilt University as well as from participants at the 5th Annual New Directions in Analyzing Text as Data Conference, the 2015 and 2016 Pyrenean Interdisciplinary Research Events, and various American, European, Midwest, and Southern Political Science Association meetings.
Additionally, our home institutions have each contributed in their own ways. Ramey thanks Muataz Al Barwani, Benoit Marchand, and the entire team of staff working behind the scenes of NYU Abu Dhabis high-performance computing environment, BuTinah. Klingler acknowledges support received through ANR-Labex at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse. Hollibaugh is grateful for support received through the University of Notre Dames Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts in the College of Arts and Letters.
We were extremely fortunate to work with the University of Chicago Press (with particular thanks to Rodney Powell and Holly Smith) and to have John Tryneski guiding us every step of the way. His guidance was invaluable, and we are particularly grateful that someone with his wisdom and expertise was willing to invest so much time, effort, and trust into three youngand relatively greenscholars. Not only has the book grown (both in scope and clarity) from the original prospectus and sample chapters that Ramey and Hollibaugh peddled to him several years ago, but the three of us have also grown as scholars. For this and other reasons too numerous to list here, we are very grateful.
