President Obama, on the other hand, uses the pronoun I less than other presidents when speaking off-the-cuff to reporters, which Pennebaker said reflects his self confidence - and his sense of emotional detachment. “Compared to other presidents like Bush and Clinton, he uses active verbs at high rates and pronouns at low rates during his press conferences,’’ said Pennebaker.
Obama would rather put a situation, like the economic crisis, into a rich historical context than put it in terms of what he personally thinks about the recession and how to solve it. “He just doesn’t connect well with people when he’s not giving a scripted speech’’ he said, “because of this detachment.’’
On the other hand, politicians who preface their ideas with “I think we should…’’ often are looking to hedge their bets, leaving open the possibility that what they think could be completely misguided.
What about the collective “we’’ that I often catch myself using in my conversations?
“It’s a fascinating word,’’ Pennebaker told me. “It can be a warm, nurturing we, or it can be used to distance yourself where you don’t want to own what you’re saying.’’
In warning Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke against committing a “treasonous’’ act if he tried to boost the economy by printing more money, Republican presidential candidate and Texas governor Rick Perry told Iowan voters this week, “I don’t know what you all would do to him in Iowa, but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas.’’ (The we being, not him necessarily, but his fellow Texans.)
Of course, as Pennebaker pointed out, pronouns - or lack thereof - can be used to assign blame for wrongdoing from taking responsibility by saying “I made a mistake’’ to the less culpable “we made a mistake’’ to the blameless “mistakes were made.’’
