Reflections on Sentiment/Opinion Analysis

TL;DR

This paper explores future directions for sentiment analysis by integrating psychological insights, focusing on underlying needs and goals to better understand sentiment valence, aiming to bridge cognitive science and computational methods.

Contribution

It proposes a novel perspective emphasizing psychological factors like needs and goals to deepen understanding of sentiment analysis, encouraging interdisciplinary research.

Findings

Highlights the importance of underlying needs in sentiment interpretation

Suggests integrating cognitive science insights into computational models

Identifies future research directions for sentiment analysis

Abstract

In this paper, we described possible directions for deeper understanding, helping bridge the gap between psychology / cognitive science and computational approaches in sentiment/opinion analysis literature. We focus on the opinion holder's underlying needs and their resultant goals, which, in a utilitarian model of sentiment, provides the basis for explaining the reason a sentiment valence is held. While these thoughts are still immature, scattered, unstructured, and even imaginary, we believe that these perspectives might suggest fruitful avenues for various kinds of future work.