Changes in Pronoun Use in American Books and the Rise of Individualism, 1960-2008
- 9 August 2012
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology
- Vol. 44 (3), 406-415
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022112455100
Abstract
Change over time in culture can appear among individuals and in cultural products such as song lyrics, television, and books. This analysis examines changes in pronoun use in the Google Books ngram database of 766,513 American books published 1960-2008. We hypothesize that pronoun use will reflect increasing individualism and decreasing collectivism in American culture. Consistent with this hypothesis, the use of first person plural pronouns (e.g., we, us) decreased 10% first person singular pronouns (I, me) increased 42%, and second person pronouns (you, your) quadrupled. These results complement previous research finding increases in individualistic traits among Americans.Keywords
This publication has 34 references indexed in Scilit:
- Tuning in to psychological change: Linguistic markers of psychological traits and emotions over time in popular U.S. song lyrics.Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 2011
- Birth Cohort Differences in Self-Esteem, 1988–2008: A Cross-Temporal Meta-AnalysisReview of General Psychology, 2010
- Language, Meaning, and Social CognitionPersonality and Social Psychology Review, 2007
- Hyperauthorship: A postmodern perversion or evidence of a structural shift in scholarly communication practices?Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2001
- Complementarity Theory: Why Human Social Capacities Evolved to Require Cultural ComplementsPersonality and Social Psychology Review, 2000
- “I” Value Freedom, but “We” Value Relationships: Self-Construal Priming Mirrors Cultural Differences in JudgmentPsychological Science, 1999
- How the self became a problem: A psychological review of historical research.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1987
- Use of first person pronouns as a function of increased objective self-awareness and performance feedbackJournal of Experimental Social Psychology, 1975
- Hanunóo Color CategoriesSouthwestern Journal of Anthropology, 1955
- A study in language and cognition.The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1954