10.15.08
Taking debate
I’m kinda-sorta looking forward to tonight’s third exchange of presidential campaign commercials—what some people have puzzlingly referred to as “debate.” I’m actually more interested in the microscopic analysis that will begin the moment the cameras click off. The first debates have been analyzed down to, it seems, such matters as who walked the furthest on camera and off, who had the longest eyebrow hairs, and who used the most big words of more than six letters.
I’m not making the last one up, by the way. Psychologist Dr. James W. Pennebaker has done precisely that analysis. It’s part of a larger project to—by my analogy—analyze one’s verbal handwriting. Pennebaker has developed ways to analyze everything from Beatles lyrics to Al-Qaeda memos based on specific words used and their frequency.
Dr. Pennebaker assigns words to such categories as “positive emotion,” “anxiety,” “causal,” “insight,” “inhibition” and “likely to lead to high Scrabble scores.” Well, maybe not the last one. Anyway, pretty interesting stuff—check New York Times coverage for specifics. And check his blog for analysis devoted to the presidential conversation.
Oh yeah. Most big words in the second debate? McCain 17.88% of words used to Obama’s 17.17%. Obama says uh a lot—does that fit into the tally?
, 
and 
. Feel free to 
JohnnyB said,
October 15, 2008 at 9:27 am
That is very interesting. The link in the Times article, analyzing the candidates speeches contains an important caution. Is the candidate using his own words or those of a speechwriter? Whose personality is being revealed? Also, if speechwriters/makers learn more about this science, they could write their speeches to fit a pattern they think would make them look better. Meanwhile, the findings do seem to fit most of my impressions about the two men.
WordPron said,
October 15, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Phenomenal. Yet another microanalysis, but one that won’t be shown on the craptastic cable news programs. And love the analogy of our current debates to swapped commercials. New to the blog, and will be visiting again!
Jenn said,
October 15, 2008 at 6:49 pm
All I can say is that the first one that uses “Impact” as a verb looses my vote.
Bill Brohaugh said,
October 15, 2008 at 6:57 pm
JB: Point well taken. What’s more, other things Mr. Pennebaker has analyzed have artificial influences. The Times article mentions his contrast of Lennon and McCartney–for them, specific word choices were governed to a great extent by the constraints of meter and rhyme.
WP: Happy to know you’ll be back. I wandered over your way, and I believe I’ll be knocking on your bloggy door, as well. Fun stuff.