The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say About Us by Pennebaker James W

Author:Pennebaker, James W. [Pennebaker, James W.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Bloomsbury Press
Published: 2011-08-22T16:00:00+00:00

The words people use in their conversations, e-mails, and letters predict where they rank in the social hierarchy surprisingly well. As you might guess, status is revealed by function words rather than the content of what is being said. Of all the types of function words, the single dimension that separates the high- from the low-status speakers is pronouns. And even among the pronouns, only a small group of words is important:

Low use of I-words People higher in the social hierarchy use first-person singular pronouns such as I, me, and my at much lower rates than people lower in status. In any interaction between two people, the person with the higher status uses fewer I-words. This is not a typo. High-status people, when talking to lower-status people, use the words I, me, and my at low rates. Conversely, the lower-status people tend to use I-words at high rates.

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