Title: Word Embeddings Quantify 100 Years of Gender and Ethnic Stereotypes,
Abstract: Word embeddings use vectors to represent words such that the geometry between
vectors captures semantic relationship between the words. In this paper, we
develop a framework to demonstrate how the temporal dynamics of the embedding
can be leveraged to quantify changes in stereotypes and attitudes toward women
and ethnic minorities in the 20th and 21st centuries in the United States. We
integrate word embeddings trained on 100 years of text data with the U.S.
Census to show that changes in the embedding track closely with demographic and
occupation shifts over time. The embedding captures global social shifts --
e.g., the women's movement in the 1960s and Asian immigration into the U.S --
and also illuminates how specific adjectives and occupations became more
closely associated with certain populations over time. Our framework for
temporal analysis of word embedding opens up a powerful new intersection
between machine learning and quantitative social science.