What is Your State Known For?

Renee DiResta uses Google's autocomplete feature to understand how Americans "really think about 'those people' in other states." Play with her wonderfully enlightening interactive map to view the top terms associated with each state.

1 minute read

August 14, 2012, 2:00 PM PDT

By Jonathan Nettler @nettsj


By DiResta's accounting, it turns out Americans may be most concerned with the cost and health of their neighboring states. Stunned, right? 

It's the qualitative searches, however, that provide the most interest to DiResta. "There are 12
unique terms that are classifiable as "culture/sentiment" queries, of
which ten are negative: backwards, bad, boring, crazy, dangerous, hated, racist, stupid, trashy, weird.
There were a few redeeming positive results; Colorado, Minnesota,
Texas, and Vermont are 'awesome,' and Montana, New Hampshire, and New
York are 'great.' But for the most part, it doesn't seem like we think
very nice things about each other at the very least, we're more inclined
to search for articles supporting (or related to) negative biases."

Check out DiResta's map to see what your state is known for. 

Tuesday, August 7, 2012 in no upside

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

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