Researchers from the University of Rochester have carried out a social network study using the Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) microblogging platform to analyze support for the presidential forerunners Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton.
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The analysis considered various factors including age, race and gender of the followers. The researchers stated that Trump supporters are more divided than those supporting Clinton because they either have little influence or a lot of influence. Trump’s supporters on the social network appear on both ends of the spectrum while Clinton’s followers are distributed in the center.
The analysis also showed that Clinton is expected to have a lot of female supporters, but support from Democratic women has declined sharply based on the Twitter analysis. The analysis suggests that female supporters are 45.4%, thus tying with Trump whose female support is also at 45.4%. As for the racial analysis, the study also suggests that Clinton’s supporters on Twitter are most likely to be Hispanic or African Americans while Trump gains support from white followers.
This is most likely because of Trump’s stand on the immigrant issue. One of the researchers, Yu Wang from the University of Rochester stated that the research findings indicate that Trump’s feud with Megyn Kelly did not push female supporters away.
Age analysis indicates that Trump has a lot of support from those under 17 years of age as well as those who are 40 years old and above. Clinton has a lot of supporters from those between 18 and 40. Overall Clinton has 5.7 million supporters on Twitter while Trump has 7 million followers. However, it is worthy to note that followers are constantly changing their decisions.
The social network study used machine learning technology to analyze user pictures so that it can determine various aspects including gender and ethnicity.