Once you have multiple workspaces, you can compare them to one another. Comparisons allow you to see differences and similarities in meanings, statistics and demographics, and ethnographic factors.

The purpose of this feature is to understand the level of overlap between what might typically or traditionally be considered disparate cultures. For example, if you're studying skin health, and you see some connection to hair, you might run two searches (in two workspaces) to see what level overlap the two cultures have in meanings. A high overlap in this case shows us that in the consumer's mind, the two are becoming interrelated and likely inter-dependent. Which of course, we can explore and validate by studying each topic universe (each culture) in detail.

To compare them, simply click the Compare button in the top right of the page, on the workspace bar.

You can explore the shared meanings among two or three different microcultures, including any shared overlap. This can help you understand how similar or different seemingly related topics are.

For instance, we can observe that probiotic supplements and irritated skin have very little overlap (only 0.4% of their meanings are shared). This indicates that skincare shares more cultural meanings and relationships with irritated skin than supplements do.

You can see a comparison of each culture’s current maturity and population reach.

We can see here that probiotic skincare is currently more mature than supplements - which is surprising, and we might want to investigate why. Is this because people are starting to grow skeptical of probiotic supplements (compared to fermented foods?). Or, are consumers’ expectations of supplements changing?

You can compare the demographics of 2-3 workspaces in terms of class, age, income, family type, gender, and education.

You can compare the demographics of 2-3 workspaces in terms of motivations, fears, values, and attitudes.

No standard benchmark exists to define high or low overlap in meanings, as it depends on the category or macroculture being studied. Comparing obviously related topics, like skin health and acne, can provide a logical benchmark to compare with other topics, such as skin health and hair health in this case.