The habits and behaviors that define a culture are complex and fascinating. But measuring them is a difficult task.

Thiago Silva at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Brazil study cultural differences around the world using data generated by check-ins on the location-based social network, Foursquare.

Because Foursquare does not share its data, Silva downloaded almost five million tweets containing Foursquare check-ins.

The results are interesting:

• Drinking habits show greater similarity between, for example Brazil and France than England and France.
• Brazilians eat and drink later than either Americans or British.
• U.s. and Brazilian peak eating/drinking time is late in the evening, but the British – at least on the weekend – starts around lunchtime. And doesn’t really stop.
• Turkey is similar to…Russia?
• The U.S. and Mexico cluster similarly, despite the difference in language and latitude.

Via MIT Technology Review for the full article.