The Secret Life of Pronouns_ What Our Words Say About Us - James W. Pennebaker [41]
From a psychological perspective, it allows us to see what kind of people emphasize which themes in their writing. Even at the most superficial level, the results tell us that there are some people who focus on colors and others who don’t. Another group writes about the words and lettering—and others don’t.
We have also explored the behaviors of people who emphasize different themes of the bottle. The most interesting are those who write about the lighting and shadow cast on the left side of the bottle. Among college students, those who write about the shadow tend to be more thoughtful and artistic and less concerned about appearances. They make higher grades, go to more art shows, and play more computer games. They also are less likely to drink heavily, to make to-do lists, to vacuum, to fix things when they break, to take baths (although, fortunately, they shower as much as others), and to blow-dry their hair.
Other patterns emerge as well. Those who emphasize the words on the label are more likely to be female and to read more. Those interested in the texture and the feeling of the bottle tend to report more physical symptoms of all types. And the students who write about the surface of the bottle seem to erect a barrier between themselves and others. They report being less agreeable, avoid having heart-to-heart talks with others, and, if they have a major upheaval, prefer not to talk with others about it.
Who would have thought that describing something as inconsequential as a bottle of water could reveal so much? Although promising, the patterns of effects are not very strong—although they are statistically trustworthy. In other words, it would be foolhardy to ask our friends to describe the bottle and then rush out and buy some of them a blow dryer if they mention the shadow in the picture. Instead, think of these findings as a hint of what is available to us in analyzing language. Imagine what we might see if we ask people to describe more complex things.
SEEING YOURSELF BY SEEING OTHERS
I love the bottle test. Buoyed by the findings, my students and I tried another picture. This time, we wanted a more complex and socially relevant stimulus. A regular picture of real people was needed. To find one, I rummaged through my desk drawers looking for pictures. Presto—I discovered a photo of two very dear friends at an outdoor party my wife and I had had several years earlier. With their permission, I started using this picture in several studies.
Before going into the findings of the Garden Party Project, look at the picture above. Spend a few minutes writing down how you would describe it to another person who couldn’t actually see it. If you decide not to write your description, at least do the project in your mind and remember what you focus on.
Perhaps more than anyone, this picture fascinated one of my graduate students, Kate Niederhoffer. Kate’s research interests spanned traditional social psychology and the world of business and marketing. She looked at the picture and wondered if the ways people described it could predict their buying patterns. More broadly, she wanted to know if people’s daily behaviors were reflected in the ways they looked at the world. Kate, who now helps run a marketing company that uses text analysis, set up a website where hundreds of people from all walks of life described the picture and also completed an exhaustive questionnaire about their daily behaviors. (A short version of the questionnaire, the LIFE scale, can be completed at www.SecretLifeOfPronouns/LIFE.)
Hundreds of people ended up describing the backyard party picture. The types of descriptions