James Pennebaker, Centennial Professor and Chair of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin will be presenting “The secret life of pronouns: How our words reflect who we are” as part of the Syracuse University School of Information Studies (iSchool) Brown Bag Series on Monday, February 28, 2011, at 12:00 noon in 347 Hinds Hall.
Pennebaker and his students have found that the way people use function words (e.g. pronouns, articles, prepositions and other seemingly invisible words) predicts their emotional state, status, honesty and personality. Most recently, analyses of function words have been found to be related to social relationships and group processes.
Trained as a social psychologist, Pennebaker’s federally funded research focuses on the links between natural language use and social behaviors.
All are welcome to attend the presentation.