Who is ready to join green practices: automatic analysis of user interest

Tyumen State University Herald. Social, Economic, and Law Research


Release:

2024. Vol. 10. № 4 (40)

Title: 
Who is ready to join green practices: automatic analysis of user interest


For citation: Zakharova, O. V., Glazkova, A. V., Hodyrev, A. N., Bessonova, S. D., Zagainova, E. O., Ivanova, D. V., Kalimova, A. E., & Vasilec, A. A. (2024). Who is ready to join green practices: automatic analysis of user interest. Tyumen State University Herald. Social, Economic, and Law Research, 10(4), 77–96. https://doi.org/10.21684/2411-7897-2024-10-4-77-96

About the authors:

Olga V. Zakharova, Cand. Sci. (Phylos.), Head of the Green Solutions Lab Project Office, Associate Professor, Department of State and Municipal Administration, Carbon Measurement Test Area in Tyumen’ Region (FEWZ-2024-0016), University of Tyumen, Tyumen, Russia; o.v.zakharova@utmn.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1404-4915

Anna V. Glazkova, Cand. Sci. (Tech.), Researcher at the Green Solutions Lab Project Office, Associate Professor, Department of Software, Carbon Measurement Test Area in Tyumen’ Region (FEWZ-2024-0016), University of Tyumen, Tyumen, Russia; a.v.glazkova@utmn.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8409-6457

Arseniy N. Hodyrev, Undergraduate Student, Department of Software, University of Tyumen, Tyumen, Russia; stud0000247809@study.utmn.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7151-9852

Sofia D. Bessonova, Undergraduate Student, Department of Software, University of Tyumen, Tyumen, Russia; stud0000260021@study.utmn.ru, https://orcid.org/0009-0005-8049-6169

Evgeniya O. Zagainova, Undergraduate Student, Department of Software, University of Tyumen, Tyumen, Russia; stud0000200672@study.utmn.ru, https://orcid.org/0009-0007-8565-962X

Darya V. Ivanova, Undergraduate Student, Department of Software, University of Tyumen, Tyumen, Russia; stud0000265221@study.utmn.ru, https://orcid.org/0009-0008-0291-657X

Altynai E. Kalimova, Undergraduate Student, Department of Software, University of Tyumen, Tyumen, Russia; stud0000265592@study.utmn.ru, https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0110-8179

Anastasija A. Vasilec, Undergraduate Student, Department of Software, University of Tyumen, Tyumen, Russia; stud0000265072@study.utmn.ru

Abstract:

The paper discusses the importance of identifying social media users interested in participating in green practices —actions aimed at preserving or transforming the environment; scaling up these practices is a socially significant task. We provide user taxonomy based on their engagement in online environmental communities, which includes four categories of users and aspects describing these categories: a) disinterested users (not members of environmental communities); b) passive subscribers (members of environmental communities, inactive); c) active subscribers (members of environmental communities, active); d) agents of influence (the most involved group of active subscribers). Based on the proposed taxonomy, we collected a dataset of 1 663 entries. The data collection was carried out on the VKontakte social network. We used the thematic vector of user subscriptions to predict the degree of their interest towards participating in environmental practices. Using the collected dataset, we evaluated the effectiveness of the basic set of classification algorithms, including linear, probabilistic, metric, logical, and ensemble classifiers. We used thematic vectors of user subscriptions as input data and the labels of user activity in environmental communities as targets. The best result in terms of the F1-score was obtained using the Random Forest classifier (85.59%). The results show that users’ interest towards environmental practices can be predicted based on the themes of their subscriptions. In further work, more complex sets of features can be used to solve this task.

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