The Secret Life of Pronouns_ What Our Words Say About Us - James W. Pennebaker [45]
More broadly, could we get the same information about people by just looking at their regular language? This might include their e-mails, transcriptions of conversations, blogs, or professional writing. The answer is yes. And this is the very essence of this book. People who are analytic or categorical thinkers tend to use articles, prepositions, and negations when describing a boring bottle, discussing a backyard party, or talking with their neighbor about Mrs. Gilliwitty’s stomach problems. Of course, the ways we talk and think change depending on the situations we are in. In formal settings, we all talk more formally; when at wild parties, we are apt to talk, well, more wildly. Nevertheless, we take our personalities with us wherever we go, and no matter what the setting, we will leave behind a partial copy of our function-word fingerprint.
A THUMBNAIL SKETCH: OSAMA BIN LADEN THROUGH HIS WORDS
Consider the language of a public figure such as Osama bin Laden. Over much of his adult life, he left a record of his language in his interviews, speeches, letters, and written articles. Analysis of his words in Arabic or in English translation evidences his supreme self-confidence, even arrogance (very low rates of I-words, high use of we-words and you-words). Unlike most other leaders of extremist Arabic groups, including his sidekick, Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden was a storyteller (high in narrative markers—past-tense verbs, social references) with a decidedly dour, hostile edge. Our overall analyses would peg him as high in need for power, moderate in need for achievement, and low in need for affiliation. Cindy Chung’s meaning extraction technique reveals that his real obsession in life switched from rage at his homeland, Saudi Arabia, to America’s incursion in Iraq and Afghanistan. Interestingly, he never showed much interest in Israel compared to his al-Qaeda colleagues. No data on whether he liked long walks on the beach at dusk.
USING WORDS TO UNDERSTAND OTHERS AND OURSELVES
Armed with the findings from this chapter, is it possible for you to “read” others better? Can the work on language help you to be a better or more effective person? Let’s go with a qualified “yes” to both questions.
Recall from the second chapter the story about Senator John Kerry’s aides urging him to use the word we more and I less in his speeches? His very bright group of advisers falsely assumed that a person who uses we in a speech makes listeners feel closer to the speaker. This should serve as an object lesson to anyone who wants to read others’ personalities by analyzing their language. The primary rule of word counting: Don’t trust your instincts.
If you want to get a sense of other people by examining their language, you will actually need to count their words. You can do this by hand—but it is a slow and painful process. Or you can use a computer program. (A brief overview of some programs can be found in the notes section at the end of the book.) Of course, simply counting their words is just the first step in decoding their personality.
What do you want to know about other people? As outlined in this chapter, it is fairly easy to detect different thinking styles—whether formal, analytic, or narrative. Later chapters provide clues to detecting deception, dominance, ability to socially connect, and other dimensions. Capturing what grabs their attention through techniques such as the Meaning Extraction Method can be more difficult. Fortunately, our brains are much better at hearing content words than function words and so actual word counting may be less needed.
If you want to find out what themes guide people’s attention, listen to what they talk about. One friend of mine is insecure about his intelligence. He’s undoubtedly smart but in virtually every conversation he drops information to prove how smart he really is. The last couple of times I saw him, he mentioned how he performed