The latest issue of Psychology Today features a series of short (one page or less) items about the significance of the words an individual uses. As many of you know, I find this aspect of communication especially intriguing. So these little articles pleased me as much as a delicious array of my favorite foods.
One piece deals with the words people use in social media status updates, and in particular, what those words tell us about the writer’s personality. Considering “The Big Five” aspects of temperament, researchers compiled evidence from millions of Facebook status posts and tallied the words most often used by those at opposite ends of the spectrum for each of the five temperament traits. I guess it shouldn’t have surprised me that the F-word was often used by those who scored lowest in: agreeableness, emotional stability, and conscientiousness.
One of the snippets interposed among the short articles indicates that a job applicant’s resume should only give an e-mail address that is some variation of the applicant’s real name, e.g. margaret@persuasioncoach.com. Cute or fanciful e-mail addresses, such as sleepless@Seattle.gov, made the same negative impression as typos.
Another snippet states that saying, “Ow,” actually helps people tolerate pain more easily.
These are just a few of the tasty communication tidbits in this series of articles. If you find them as interesting as I do, and you don’t already subscribe to Psychology Today, I encourage you to pick up a copy of the August 2015 issue at a newsstand.[1]
[1] I looked at the online version of the issue, but saw only the major articles, not this group of short items.