The Emotional Arcs of Stories Are Dominated by Six Basic Shapes

The Emotional Arcs of Stories Are Dominated by Six Basic Shapes Andrew J. Reagan Lewis Mitchell Dilan Kiley Christopher M. Danforth Peter Sheridan Dodds

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The Emotional Arcs of Stories Are Dominated by Six Basic Shapes 2016 EPJ Data Science 10.1140/epjds/s13688-016-0093-1 1606.07772 reagan2016-emotional-arcs reagan2016-emotional-arcs.txt, the project's staged copy 8d70d288e97f95b706cc705f9184a152fd298a40 arxiv-open literature

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0 spans located by searching the stored text for the quote's exact words, allowing any whitespace between them existence Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. emotional arcs of stories Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. corpus-analysis corpus-analysis Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. mechanisms three independent methods are run over the same arcs - matrix decomposition, hierarchical clustering and an unsupervised self-organising map - and the paper states that confirmation comes only from the three supporting each other Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. mechanisms the emotional arc is separated from the plot by construction: it is what the words invoke, and the paper says the same arc can arise from very different plots Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. the sliding-window construction itself is described in a different sentence and in the Figure 1 caption, not in this span; the window size is unquotable here because the extraction stores its digits as private-use glyphs the paper states plainly that the dictionary method it relies on performs WORSE THAN RANDOM on an individual sentence, which is why the instrument is never applied at sentence level Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. mechanisms the arcs are mean-centred before decomposition so that the first mode is not spent on the average sentiment or on the positivity bias of language Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. mechanisms clusters are built by Ward's method, which the paper describes as proceeding by minimising variance between clusters Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. mechanisms conflation of several arcs in one book is limited by restricting the corpus to shorter books, a filter chosen for that purpose Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Success is measured only by Project Gutenberg download counts. what this limits: the success analysis only: DOWNLOADS ARE ONLY A ROUGH PROXY FOR SUCCESS Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sliding-window method cannot detect briefly mentioned emotional events. what this limits: the resolution of every arc: OUR METHOD DOES NOT PICK UP EMOTIONAL MOMENTS DISCUSSED BRIEFLY, PERHAPS IN ONE PARAGRAPH OR SENTENCE (E.G., THE FIRST KISS OF HARRY AND GINNY) Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. An emotional arc is not the plot and does not identify it. what this limits: any narrative reading of the arcs: an emotional arc is not the plot and does not identify it Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Only shorter books were analysed, to avoid conflating several core arcs. what this limits: the corpus the arcs were derived from: TO LIMIT THE CONFLATION OF MULTIPLE CORE EMOTIONAL ARCS, WE RESTRICT OUR ANALYSIS TO SHORTER BOOKS Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentiment tool is stated to perform worse than random on individual sentences, and is made usable only by averaging over a rolling window. what this limits: any sentence-level or short-passage reading of these sentiment scores: the authors state that dictionary-based sentiment methods usually perform worse than random on individual sentences, and the arcs are built from a rolling average instead Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. The result is what three different methods agree on; the paper says no single tool establishes it. what this limits: the six-arc finding: it is confirmed only by considering the results of each tool in support of the others - a matrix decomposition, a hierarchical clustering and an unsupervised map - so a citation of 'six basic shapes' that drops the three-method agreement drops the evidence Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Two of the six decomposition modes are retained for completeness and are stated not to match the archetypes the other methods produce. what this limits: the six SVD modes as six arcs: the paper says the high-frequency modes contribute little variance and do not align with the core archetypes recovered by the other methods, and are included only for completeness Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. sentiment analysis applied to works of fiction to extract their emotional arcs Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. every method re-run at four different DOWNLOAD-COUNT thresholds. THE NUMERALS SURVIVE EXTRACTION AS PRIVATE-USE-AREA GLYPHS (U+F639, U+F63C ...) rather than digits, so the thresholds are present in the text and unreadable; they are quoted as they stand and not guessed eliminates: the popularity cut-off as the source of the emotional-arc findings - a corpus filtered by downloads is a corpus of what people read, and an arc shape could be a property of the filter rather than of literature · outcome: held Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. emotional arc emotional arc Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. sentiment analysis sentiment analysis Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. plot plot Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Hedonometer Hedonometer Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. labMT labMT Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. folkloristics folkloristics Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. matrix decomposition matrix decomposition Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. singular value decomposition singular value decomposition Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. supervised learning supervised learning Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. agglomerative (hierarchical) clustering agglomerative (hierarchical) clustering Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Ward’s method Ward’s method Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. unsupervised learning unsupervised learning Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. self-organizing map self-organizing map Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. neural network neural network Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Rags to riches Rags to riches Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Tragedy Tragedy Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Riches to rags Riches to rags Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Man in a hole Man in a hole Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Icarus Icarus Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Cinderella Cinderella Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Oedipus Oedipus Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. word salad word salad Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. nonsense nonsense Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. null model null model Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. emotional arc - NOT THE PLOT, and the paper names the conflation as the misunderstanding that drew criticism from the digital humanities community: the same falling arc can come from very different plots Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. the six arcs - AS THE INTERSECTION OF THREE PROCEDURES: modes of a matrix decomposition, clusters from Ward's algorithm, and clusters from an unsupervised map; six is what survives all three, not what any one of them returns Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. sentiment - AS A WINDOW AVERAGE: the reported quantity is the score of a sliding fixed-size window, never of a sentence, which is what makes the underlying dictionary usable at all Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. folkloristics - the study of society and culture through literary analysis Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. matrix decomposition - the SVD branch of the paper's three-tool analysis Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. singular value decomposition - SVD used for matrix decomposition of emotional arcs Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. supervised learning - the paper's label for agglomerative clustering with Ward's method Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. agglomerative hierarchical clustering - the supervised analysis performed with Ward's method Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Ward's method - the method used in the agglomerative hierarchical clustering branch Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. unsupervised learning - the paper's label for the self-organizing-map analysis Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. self-organizing map - SOM, the neural-network branch of the unsupervised analysis Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. neural network - the class to which the self-organizing map is assigned Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Rags to riches - rise Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Tragedy - fall, also called Riches to rags Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Riches to rags - the alternative label for the falling Tragedy arc Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Man in a hole - fall then rise Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Icarus - rise then fall Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Cinderella - rise, fall, then rise Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Oedipus - fall, rise, then fall Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. word salad - a null story version without coherent plot or emotional arc Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. nonsense - a null story version without coherent plot or emotional arc Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. null model - a written-story comparison lacking coherent plot or structure Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. builds-on → sentiment analysis (from NLP) Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. builds-on → Kurt Vonnegut's claim that the shapes of stories can be computed Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. emotional arc —distinct-from→ plot emotional arc plot strength of the relation: 1 Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. emotional arc —operationalised-as→ Hedonometer emotional arc Hedonometer strength of the relation: 1 Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. self-organizing map —is-a→ neural network self-organizing map neural network the relation itself is separately evidenced · strength of the relation: 1 · note: The paper explicitly calls SOM a type of neural network. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 1,327 — filtered Project Gutenberg fiction corpus Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 6 — basic emotional-arc shapes found Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 3 — independent techniques used to confirm the arcs about this quote: QUOTE RECOVERED FROM THE PAPER'S OWN CHARACTERS. The recorded quote was LETTERS-ONLY IDENTICAL to this stretch of the staged text but not an exact substring of it - spaces, hyphens, ligature glyphs or mathematical operators differed, so it could never anchor. This is the file's own text between the same two letters: not produced by a rule about the damage, copied out of the file. Round-trip checked (the recovered span is letters-only equal to the original) and length-checked. The text as originally recorded is kept in evidence as extracted. The quote was later extended to the end of the list it begins; the recovered stretch is kept as the earlier quote. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. six core emotional arcs are the building blocks of story trajectories Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. particular emotional arcs enjoy greater download success Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. the findings are strengthened by separately applying matrix decomposition about this quote: QUOTE RECOVERED FROM THE PAPER'S OWN CHARACTERS. The recorded quote was LETTERS-ONLY IDENTICAL to this stretch of the staged text but not an exact substring of it - spaces, hyphens, ligature glyphs or mathematical operators differed, so it could never anchor. This is the file's own text between the same two letters: not produced by a rule about the damage, copied out of the file. Round-trip checked (the recovered span is letters-only equal to the original) and length-checked. The text as originally recorded is kept in evidence as extracted. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. the emotional arc is distinct from the plot Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. emotional arc emotional arc Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. sentiment sentiment Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. downloads downloads Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. plot plot Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. emotional arc emotional arc Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. narratology narratology Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. sentiment analysis sentiment analysis Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. plot plot Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. mean mean Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. sample-size sample-size about this quote: NOT REPAIRED, AND REVERTED AFTER IT WAS. This quote is verbatim in the web page we fetched and carries a real minus sign in '2( N − 1)'. The grounding copy has an en dash there. A repair that normalised dashes matched the two and replaced the correct character with the poorer extraction's. The quote stays as the paper set it and stays unanchorable against the grounding copy, which is the honest state - the project, 2026-08-23 17:35: the quotes are right, the staging is what disagrees. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. variance variance Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution.

The full text of this article is not redistributable, so it is not included here. The evidence sentences are withheld with it; the tag layer and its grounding status remain. The article itself is at https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-016-0093-1.