The Wall Street Journal writes today on how computer-assisted language analysis can recognize speech patterns that might hint at whether someone is more or less likely to be depressed.
The most interesting finding: Based on a study in January, people who speak in absolutes are more likely to be depressed.
The WSJ:
The researchers, from the University of Reading in the U.K., used software to calculate the percentage of absolutist words used in messages by approximately 6,400 members of internet forums for depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation and a host of control forums.
They found that approximately 1.5% of words used by people in the depression and anxiety forums were absolutist—which was 50% more than those used by people in the control forums. The percentage was even higher for people in the suicidal ideation forums: about 1.8%.
Why are absolutist words so bad? People often don’t realize they are using them, and they can amp up negative thoughts.”
Does this mean Donald Trump is really depressed?
Of course, context is huge, and internet forums seem like a good place to study (as opposed to talking with marketers or sales people).
This sort of study has the ring of truth, but it would also be interesting to see whether the absolutes are more related to a variable like verbosity than view of the world.
In other words, depressed people might have to use more absolutes to get their point across, because they’re simply less interested in communicating, and absolutism cuts down on density. So the terseness of depression drives the absolutism. It’s not that depressives necessarily think in more absolutes. They just talk in them because they don’t like talking as much. So the results of the study would stay the same, but the driver could be a depressive desire for brevity, rather than an absolutist view of the world.
But like I said, the absolutism, from anecdotal evidence, as well, does have the ring of truth, and as the article suggests, reframing things from a less absolutist framework is CLEARLY the BEST IDEA IN THE WORLD.
