Psychology and language in politics: Candidates for the Presidency of the Government and their linguistic style

Abstract

We analyzed the linguistic style of the candidates for president of government of Spain's main political parties, the Partido Popular (PP) and the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE). Then we calculated the LSM Language Style Matching between them. The LSM reflects how people involved in a dialogue match their linguistic style by their use of function words. In this case it was found that, despite the existence of individual differences, the language style used by both candidates is quite similar. For the study of linguistic style LIWC Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count program was used. The possible interpretations of this phenomenon are discussed. We conclude pointing out the usefulness of the LSM and LIWC as tools for studying human behavior and interaction, providing an alternative to self-report measures