How Your Personality Is Revealed By Your Choice of Words
How Your Personality Is Revealed By Your Choice of Words
Twenty-five years ago, my eighth-grade soccer coach approached me and asked, “Can I have a word with you?”
We headed back to his office, and he proceeded to explain that there wasn’t a spot for me on the team. Considering I was new to soccer, and this was a highly competitive school, it shouldn’t have come as a shock. However, it was a devastating blow. As the new kid, soccer was not only a passion but also a means of forging friendships.
Back then, in my youthful immaturity, I viewed him as cruel and unjust. Yet, decades later, I still find myself thinking, “Coach Maloney was a genuinely good person.”
Why, you might ask? It’s because of his kindness in that moment. He showed empathy and provided a fair explanation. The team was already overcrowded, and it led to issues with an excessive number of players. I recall the pained expression on his face as he uttered, “This is the toughest part of my job, and I despise having to do it.” He encouraged me to try out again the following year (which I did and thankfully made the team).
It wasn’t until I ventured out into the world, encountered a few unpleasant individuals, endured heartbreaks, and had a couple of terrible bosses that I truly grasped the concept of what a jerk is.
People often underestimate the power of language and engage in superficial exchanges. However, you can gain profound insights into individuals by examining their choice of words. It can unveil their motives, objectives, character, mood, and more. The underlying concept is that there are countless ways to convey the same message, and the way someone selects to convey it speaks volumes about them.
Insights from linguistic analysis reveal that a University of Colorado researcher, Dr. Tal Yarkoni, isolated the most frequently used words by bloggers based on their scores on the Big 5 personality traits. Agreeable individuals frequently employed words like “wonderful,” “together,” “visiting,” “morning,” and “spring.” They also used affectionate emojis and various terms related to love. Extroverts favored words such as “bar,” “other,” “drinks,” “restaurant,” and “dancing.”
Conversely, individuals with high scores in neuroticism tended to use words like “awful,” “lazy,” “worse,” and “depressing,” reflecting their often cynical outlook on life.
