Washington--When politicians talk in a friendly way that focuses on helping others, US public approval ratings rise, according to a study out Monday.
But when elected leaders in the US House of Representatives stop stressing cooperation, public approval declines, according to research that spanned nearly two decades and 124 million words spoken during debates in the halls of Congress.
"The individual words whose use most strongly predicted public approval were as follows: gentle, involve, educate, contribute, concerned, give, tolerate, trust and cooperate," said the study by Canadian and German researchers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed US journal.
Researchers used software to analyze 123,927,807 words spoken in the US House of Representatives between 1996 and 2014.
The computer checked for linguistic markers of what is known as "prosocial language," meaning words that indicate a concern with the collective good.
Then, the researchers compared levels of prosocial language within each month of Congress with its approval ratings by the American public.
They discovered "a striking match," said the study.
"Public approval peaked in the aftermath of the (2001) September 11 attacks, declined over the next seven years, rose slightly in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, and then declined again," it added.
"Prosocial language followed a nearly identical trajectory."
AFP
