Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712;
Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019 Feb 26;116(9):3476-3481. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1811987116. Epub 2019 Feb 11.
From many perspectives, the election of Donald Trump was seen as a departure from long-standing political norms. An analysis of Trump's word use in the presidential debates and speeches indicated that he was exceptionally informal but at the same time, spoke with a sense of certainty. Indeed, he is lower in analytic thinking and higher in confidence than almost any previous American president. Closer analyses of linguistic trends of presidential language indicate that Trump's language is consistent with long-term linear trends, demonstrating that he is not as much an outlier as he initially seems. Across multiple corpora from the American presidents, non-US leaders, and legislative bodies spanning decades, there has been a general decline in analytic thinking and a rise in confidence in most political contexts, with the largest and most consistent changes found in the American presidency. The results suggest that certain aspects of the language style of Donald Trump and other recent leaders reflect long-evolving political trends. Implications of the changing nature of popular elections and the role of media are discussed.
从多个角度来看，唐纳德·特朗普的当选被视为背离了长期以来的政治规范。对特朗普在总统辩论和演讲中用词的分析表明，他异常不拘小节，但同时又表现出一种确定性。事实上，他的分析性思维低于几乎所有前任美国总统，而自信心则高于他们。对总统语言的语言趋势进行更深入的分析表明，特朗普的语言与长期的线性趋势一致，这表明他并不像最初看起来那样是个异类。在跨越几十年的来自美国总统、非美国领导人以及立法机构的多个语料库中，在大多数政治背景下，分析性思维普遍下降，而自信心普遍上升，其中在美国总统职位上发现的变化最大且最一致。研究结果表明，唐纳德·特朗普和其他近期领导人的某些语言风格反映了长期以来不断演变的政治趋势。讨论了民意选举性质的变化以及媒体的作用所产生的影响。
